


Footfalls echo down our memories

by EternalSinner



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Afterlife shenannigans, Byleth/Rhea and Byleth/Edelgard is very significant to their character development, Crimson Flower Rhea, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Silver Snow Edelgard, my girls are gonna duke it out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 57,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalSinner/pseuds/EternalSinner
Summary: The Rhea who died in Crimson Flower and the Edelgard who died in Silver Snow meet in what seems like a temporary purgatory. There they are told that because of their actions, Byleth -who cared deeply for both of them- felt so torn as to who to follow she inadvertently tore both herself and time apart, splitting the timeline in two.Now it's up to both Edelgard and Rhea, who are still hurt by the memories of their own failure, downfall and death, to look back at their past and somehow find a way to create a future where Byleth is spared the agony of watching them go to war with one another.This utterly displeases both of them, and they're still very angry with each other.Luckily their bodies are invincible...
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Edelgard von Hresvelg/Rhea, My Unit | Byleth/Rhea
Comments: 48
Kudos: 244





	1. Stalemate

The first thing that comes back to her when she regains consciousness is how _angry_ she was only mere moments ago.

Why was it she had been so angry again?

Oh, right. That _damnable_ heretic who corrupted the vessel of her Mother’s soul had foolishly tried to defy her.

Wait no, not tried. She _succeeded._

The last thing Rhea remembers with clarity is those two who betrayed her swinging their weapons –made from her brethren- at her and… and… killing her.

She had been killed.

She _died._

On instinct she scrambles to her knees and raises her hands in front of her face to inspect them. They’re fine, much to her relief. Oh, but it wasn’t her hands they got, it was her head. After putting both her hands on her head and realizing that if her head had still been well… bashed in, she likely wouldn’t have been able to check her health in the first place.

Hands though… that means she’s in human form again for some reason.

And, more strangely, it’s almost odd how good she feels. Not her mood, because that’s worse than bad, but her health instead. No pain, no discomfort, no muscle ache, not even the slightest hint of exhaustion or tension in her body. It’s refreshing, almost peaceful even

“ _You,”_ she hears being sneered towards her in the form of a low, angry voice from some distance away.

When she turns her head into the direction of the sound she’s greeted with the sight of that same damnable heretic who just killed her, currently in the process of hurriedly trying to get up on her feet, an angry glare in her eyes aimed at Rhea.

And promptly any feelings of peacefulness she was having vanish on the spot.

“Getting away with all your crimes and orchestrating my death wasn’t enough for you?” the girl growls accusingly as she wobbles unsteady on her feet before finding her balance. “Have you come back for more?”

Rhea, now equally angry, rises to her feet as well, much more gracefully, she notices with spiteful glee.

“What in Heaven’s are you talking about, child?” she hisses back.

“You had her _kill_ me!” Edelgard all but screams at her. “You corrupted her mind and meddled with her soul so she’d hate me just like you!”

Confusion floods Rhea’s mind, as she does not remember doing that at all. She only remembers Byleth siding against _herself_ and consecutively killing her.

Maybe Byleth killed Edelgard shortly afterward? Just take both leaders of a war out all at once.

But no… Edelgard just said she got away with her supposed crimes, which Rhea really didn’t… since she died and all.

“You’re one to talk, you killed me yourself, you utter heretic,” she bites back in the vague hope Edelgard will reveal something more about her knowledge.

Now the other woman turns to look confused. “I didn’t kill you? You were still alive when Byleth killed me,” she says, with audible pain and hurt in their voice. "If it wasn't for her I would have succeeded in taking you down, along with all the lies you propagated."

They stare each other down, teeth gritted and jaws clenched.

With half a mind Rhea takes in Edelgard’s appearance. She seems to be wearing a white tunic of sorts, with short sleeves and with the tunic itself ending slightly below her waist. Other than that she’s wearing nothing else but a pair of shorts ending just above her knees.

Disgusting.

One short glance downwards reveals she’s wearing exactly the same, much to her dismay.

“What did you do?” she hisses, her patience wearing thin as she does not thrive well in not knowing what’s going on.

“What did _I do?_ What did _you_ do?” comes the equally angry reply.

“Don’t play coy with me girl, you clearly did something after you killed me.”

Edelgard stomps her foot on the ground. “I _didn’t_ kill you.”

“You did.”

Another stare- down, now with more unbridled rage bubbling beneath the surface.

Both of them snap at the same moment.

“Lying is a sin, heretic!”

“You lying serpent!”

They both look confused again for but a few seconds before rage takes over their senses.

Edelgard is the first to give in to her feelings and all but charges at Rhea, fists clenched.

Rhea sidesteps her easily and elbows the girl in the ribs. Hard.

To her surprise Edelgard barely staggers and gasps only slightly for air until she’s back into battle.

Rhea, in her moment of confusion, wasn’t prepared to be attacked again so soon and now finds herself promptly punched in the stomach. Equally hard.

It hurts. …But not quite enough for it to take the wind out of her and she too finds herself ready to launch another attack mere seconds after, which she does and Edelgard is met with a knee in her groin before both Rhea’s hands find her shoulders and shove her roughly backwards.

Now Edelgard does stagger backwards, balancing on one foot as she spreads and waves her arms in order to regain her posture.

That delayed sidestep is exactly the opening Rhea needed and with a twirl and a low sweep she kicks into Edelgard’s balancing leg under her knee and sweeps her of her feet.

As Edelgard falls backwards she has a moment of confusion where to place her hands and this delay causes her to land flat on her back.

It should have hurt. Might have hurt for days under normal circumstances.

But one look in Edelgard’s fury filled eyes tells Rhea that if she doesn’t act now she’ll have a perfectly healthy woman at her throat again in seconds.

So she gives in to her own building fury and launches herself on top of the younger woman and punches her square in the face.

And oh, there is blood a second later. Edelgard has a nosebleed and blood is dripping rapidly from her nose, onto her lips and sideways to her cheeks.

It has Rhea worried, as she was under some vague believe none of this was real and they couldn’t damage each other. Edelgard too seems momentarily worried, as her fingers find her nose and feel the blood.

“Bitch,” she sneers angrily.

Edelgard apparently wasn’t all that consumed by her worries as suddenly Rhea feels a knee being jammed into her lower stomach, causing her to try rise up and cradle it with her arms, more out of shock than pain.

Before she can realize her mistake, having given Edelgard a perfect opening, she’s roughly grabbed by the shoulders and with the additional use from her legs, Edelgard flips them over and wastes no time punching Rhea against her cheek.

And so they stumble on in their fight, their pent up rage fueling the both of them.

None of this is working, no punch or kick is weakening them at all, the nosebleed, while having bled heavily for a few seconds, has already stopped and each time one of them manages to land a hard blow on the other, said other is back to full health and power in mere seconds.

But oh, is it _satisfying._

So they punch and kick, roll around in the grass mingled with dirt, drag the other back down if they try to get back on their feet, pull each other’s hair and push each other’s head down until their faces meets the dirt below them and so on.

They also do a lot of equally satisfying name calling with some occasional swearing added in.

“I hope you’re proud,” Edelgard yells at her, once both of them somehow had found a moment to make it to their feet, now circling each other like wary predators. “Fighting an unarmed and defenseless human while you have your magic and your monster lizard form,” she says accusingly. “You’re not even using any of it, are you just playing with me for your own amusement? That does sound like you, you vindictive hypocrite.”

Feeling a bit dumbfounded Rhea realizes she indeed hasn’t tapped into any of her magic yet, it simply hadn’t occurred to her. Well, time to do so. She conjures up some wind blades to hurl at Edelgard. Dodge that, flimsy girl.

Only to realize there are no wind blades to be seen, heard or felt. She can’t even feel any magic whatsoever.

She tries it again.

And again nothing.

She must have gestured with her arms too obviously, followed by equally obvious bewilderment and confusion in her eyes as she suddenly notices Edelgard peering at her with narrowing suspicion and quickly draws the same conclusion Rhea draws with dread.

“You can’t use magic,” she states bluntly, with an unkind grin tugging at her lips. “Ahw, did they clip the poor dragon’s wings?” she coos maliciously.

Rhea is at once nothing but fury yet again and charges at Edelgard at full force, screaming all the while.

Secretly she tries to transform while doing so but with a shiver out of fear and discomfort she finds she also cannot do that.

What is going on?

Her sudden fear made her hesitate and a moment later the two of them are tumbling on the ground again, hissing and screaming all the while.

It goes on. Too long and not long enough. It helps getting all the stress and rage inside her diminish somewhat, a fight where she can go all out with all her fury on display. Years of suppressed hatred and grief now free to show itself.

But it’s not going anywhere either.

By now Rhea has streaks of dried tears marring her cheeks after Edelgard had kindly filled them with a fistful of sand, yet the stinging in her eyes barely lasted long enough for Edelgard to get a free punch in, which she did and now Rhea has a bloody scrape on her cheek where the girl’s knuckles made direct contact with her skin.

Yet neither of them are slowing down.

Rhea certainly doesn’t want to be the first one to give in, to call for a break or a truce nor anything like that. She’d never willingly surrender herself, and all that she stands for to the heartless, idiotic woman currently trying to push her over once more.

Although she’s aware that Edelgard is likely having similar thoughts on the matter of surrendering to Rhea.

A stalemate then.

Wonderful.

With Rhea screaming as Edelgard is half crawled onto her back while –ever the honorable fighter that she is- forcefully yanking her hair backwards as she hurls all kinds of insults at Rhea, who just got her fingers around Edelgard’s other wrist and is trying to wrench the girl off of her they almost miss the voice coming from the sky above them.

“Ladies!”

…

“LADIES, PLEASE. A word first, if I may.”

Startled by the loud voice, both women do instantly manage to reach a truce –Edelgard’s hand still in Rhea’s hair and Rhea’s hand still firmly squeezing Edelgard’s wrist.

But the both of them still all their movements and look above them to search for the owner of the voice.

The sight shocks them both, yet for equally different reasons.

Wide eyed and with a terrified wail Edelgard tries to scramble off of Rhea and find some sort of purchase. She can’t do much more as they’re in a large and open field of grass while the thing is approaching them fast.

‘The thing’ being another dragon, that is.

One Rhea recognizes once he gets close enough.

One she hasn’t seen in over a thousand years.

Her brother Melchior, who was killed in the battle of Zanado.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *muffled 'Kiss with a fist' by Florence and the machine playing in the distance*
> 
> Gonna be more fisting than kissing for quite some time though. Heh.
> 
> I just really want to write my two favorite ladies with anger issues duke it out.  
> Also they get to swear, as a treat. Because I say so.


	2. Breaking the timeline is a bad thing, ladies

It's her _brother._ Her brother who died along with nearly all of her family so many centuries ago.

All at once Rhea forgets what she was doing, where she was, who she was with and what was previously going on.

Because she’s seeing her _dead brother_ right there, landing with an oomph on the ground some distance away from them.

He takes in Rhea first, who is still unceremoniously sprawled onto the ground but is fine otherwise and then his eyes –his whole head really- moves over to Edelgard, who is several shades paler than Rhea thought possible and for once left speechless as she’s taking in the gigantic form of a dragon that isn’t Rhea.

It seems to dawn on Melchior that his rather large and dangerous appearance might be somewhat frightening and off-putting to a human and soon a green hue of a slightly different shade as Rhea’s own envelopes him before the intense glow shrinks and moments later a man steps out from the fading light.

It really is her brother, in both forms. He’s wearing a simple golden circled adorning his slightly darker shade of green hair. His clothes consist of a long green tunic held together by an elaborately decorated ribbon around his waist. Over his shoulders he has draped a white, almost holy looking, cape which is tied together with a golden brooch in the middle of his collarbones.

“It’s been a while since I moved in my human form in a physical world, so my apologies for my sudden entrance,” he says matter of factly. “Although this,” he says while gesturing to the world around them, “barely meets the requirements of what a ‘physical world’ should consist of,” he shrugs almost nonchalantly.

Rhea is at a loss of what to feel or say. A part of her wants to rush over to her brother, embrace him tightly and ask where the others and her Mother are.

Another side of her feels so out of her depth and put off by his careless demeanor she isn’t sure if she should be worried, frightened or angry. Perhaps she can just go for all three at once.

“What is going on? Why are you’re here?” she finally manages to say out loud with a tremble in her voice.

Melchior crosses his arms. “Well… to put it bluntly. You’re dead. Both of you,” he says, nodding seriously. He flashes them both a look of pity, although not a very respectful or sorrowful one.

Finally Edelgard finds her ability to speak back. “We got that bit, thank you,” she sort of snaps awkwardly. “We remember dying. What we want to know is why we are here, and what ‘here’ is,” she scoffs as she scrambles back up to her feet and puts her hands on her waist in an attempt to make it look as if she isn’t affected by any of this at all.

It’s in vain, if Rhea has anything to say about it, as the girl is terribly pale, with wide eyes and her body tense.

Melchior seems unperturbed by Edelgard’s annoyance, which is clearly stemming out of not being in control of what’s going on. “Right, that makes things easier then.”

He puts his hands on his chin and seems to contemplate how to explain what is going on.

“The both of you remember Byleth right?” he questions curiously.

With much less animosity than either woman had expected they glance at one another before nodding at Melchior in conformation. “The professor at Garreg Mach, yes,” Rhea tells him.

“Good,” Melchior smiles, seemingly happy that they know that. “Well, to put it simply, you’re here because of her.”

“ _What?”_ Edelgard blurts out. “I mean I remember her killing me… but why send me here? With her no less,” she says as she points at Rhea. “And our memories don’t seem to match either.”

“Right… well I suppose I should phrase it differently then. The two of you managed to expertly manhandle Byleth’s feelings so much, all the while underestimating the true extent of her power, that her indecisiveness as to which of you two she wished to help led her to accidentally split the timeline in two,” he explains as if it sound logical and a perfectly normal that simply happens sometimes.

But it just serves to confuse Rhea even more. “But how?”

“She cared about the two of you. A lot,” he explains, then narrows his eyes at Rhea, giving her a scrutinizing look. “And I don’t need to explain to you why Byleth had problems making sense of her feelings,” he chides her condescendingly, much to Edelgard’s eager curiosity, if her expression is anything to go by.

Rhea casts her eyes to the ground, hoping to come up with something to say, but Melchior takes it as an admittance of defeat.

“That’s what I thought,” he says pointedly. “And well, what she lacked in emotional capabilities she made up for having a certain amount of control over time… a shoddy control, if I may say so myself.”

“…oh.” _Oh no._ Rhea has a nagging feeling where this is going.

“She broke time?” Edelgard asks. “Was it in the holy tomb? When Lady Rhea told her to kill me?”

Melchior smiles brightly. “Yes indeed,” he praises her before turning to Rhea. “This one is quick to catch on,” he says lightly as he flashes Rhea a smile, yet the underling accusation isn’t lost on Rhea.

“So yes, in that moment Byleth wanted so fiercely to side with the both of you, to find some way to make you reconcile and be with the both of you she subconsciously went for both options, yet instead of bringing the two of you together she split herself –and per extension time itself- into two.”

When both woman can do nothing but stare at him with a blank look on their faces he makes a sound of disappointment. "That is considered a very bad thing," he lectures them curtly."

“But then why are we here?” Edelgard asks warily. “Both of us died… and failed apparently.”

“Exactly,” Melchior says brightly. “The two of you are in a temporary in-between world. Something like a simple bubble of purgatory we constructed, made solely for the two of you.” His look turns more serious now, yet the ghost of a smile still lingers on his lips. “We have decided that in order to fix time and make it whole again the two of you must find a way to alter your pasts and ensure that Byleth won’t be forced to tear herself and time apart over you.”

Now Rhea finds herself bristling. “What? _How_ do you expect us to do that?”

Melchior doesn’t seem to care very much about her rising feelings of fear and dread. “That’s up to you really,” he says, sounding almost uncaring about the ‘how’ part of this quite dire predicament. “It’s not my task to fix the trouble you two caused.” When Rhea merely glares at him he relents a little and points into a direction of what seems nothing but grasslands with a vague bump that could be considered a pitiful hill with the odd tree scattered around. “Go there and you’ll find a wooden cabin to live in, and more importantly, a mirror of sorts. It will let the two of you see the events from both your pasts, both the part leading up to Byleth’s choice and the two paths that divide afterwards.”

He sighs and takes the two of them in with an expression that clearly tells he’s not very confident in their ability to succeed. “You’ll be able to make small alterations to the ‘yous’ of the past, but you’ll be confined to certain limits of how you can influence your past selves. I suppose if I were to give it a name it would be akin to playing chess with yourself as the pieces.” When he sees the blank look on both their faces, clearly telling him they have no clue what to do he shakes his head. “The mirror is very easy to interact with and will react to what your feelings and thoughts want, it should feel natural to you to operate it,” Melchior explains. “It will simply show you what you wish to see.”

Rhea is starting to like this less and less. Stuck here with _Edelgard_ of all people for Heaven knows how long while possibly having to cooperate with her too. _No_.

“Why _us?_ Why not let Byleth do it? If it was her who broke time in the first place.”

Now her brother glares menacingly at her. “ _Byleth?”_ he says with disbelief as to how she even dared to suggest such a thing. “Don’t you think she has suffered enough already?”

Rhea glares right back. “Oh, so that is what this is about. You want to make me suffer,” she states with a defiant look in her eyes.

“No, you’re not here to suffer,” he tells her pointedly and crosses his arms. “You’re here as a form of punishment.”

He briefly glances at Edelgard. “Both of you,” he tells her sternly.

Edelgard’s eyes widen in shock and manages to get out a high pitched “Wha-” before Rhea’s voice drowns out the rest of her voice.

“ _Punishment?”_ she all but screeches. “For what? For dying at the hands of a heretic?”

“No,” her brother says calmly while shaking his head once more. “For selfishly taking each other’s chance at happiness and that of Byleth as well, shattering her soul in the process while _also_ breaking time.”

His eyes narrow in silent anger.

“Good job ladies,” he says in an eerily cold tone. “Perhaps next time try to talk to each other before you drag your precious world into a bloody war, solely because you couldn’t stomach the other. Maybe the two of you could have found come common ground if you two hadn’t been so secretive about your woes.”

“Is that some kind of hint?” Edelgard asks, an unpleasant note in her voice.

Melchior rewards her by raising her eyebrows and giving her a knowing smile.

“All I remember is dying,” Rhea persists, her patience wearing thin and not in the mood to play hints.

“Then I suggest you move yourself to the mirror and see the _other_ side of the story,” Melchior shrugs and gives Edelgard a meaningful glance. “You know, the side where you do not die but this one over here does. See if that pleases you.”

“You cannot possibly be serious,” Rhea rebels.

“I am. And what I’m also is going to take my leave.”

Rhea fails to hide the fear suddenly boiling in her stomach. “What? You cannot just leave us here.”

“I can and I will.”

With that he turns around, taking a few steps away from then so he can transform safely. He stills however and turns around halfway. “Seiros,” he mumbles almost tenderly yet Rhea immediately wants to smother him because the heretic standing _right beside them_ did not have to hear that. “And Edelgard too,” her brother continues easily, ignoring the daggers Rhea is glaring at him. “This is going to be difficult on both of you… hard, painful even. …Please don’t be too hard on yourselves. Take days off when you need to, there is a library full of books under the cabin if you need something to keep yourself occupied. Or go explore, it’s safe. If you venture too far you’ll always somehow end back up at the cabin. Just please… learn to forgive yourselves.”

The words strike a chord in Rhea’s heart and she fails to come up with anything meaningful to respond with.

Her brother smiles at the both of them. It comes across as… encouraging, before nodding and saying his goodbyes.

A flash of light and a moment later Melchior begins his ascend into the sky, back to… wherever it is he came from.

Leaving a very uncomfortable Edelgard and Rhea together in awkward silence behind.

They watch Melchior until he gets so high that he disappears from their sight, or maybe he warped to another universe… back where Rhea’s other family is.

The thought hurts, an old kind of pain she’s been trying to bury for centuries.

Both woman stare at the now empty sky in silence for a little while longer.

“Well,” Edelgard begins. “I guess I trust that lizard more than you,” she says dismissively yet with gleeful spite. “So how about we just go and try out this mirror?”

When Rhea growls at her and gives the girl a menacing glare Edelgard pretends to be scared before chuckling to herself. “Terrifying,” she says without a hint of emotion. “Do you have any better plans then?”

Rhea can’t find it in herself to respond, her anger and pride too prominent to do so, yet she also cannot really think of anything else to do. All around her are grassy fields with the odd tree or bush scattered about, except for the small hill in the near distance where presumably the cabin is behind.

Promptly and without saying a word she begins to briskly make her way to the hill.

She hears Edelgard laugh behind her, mockingly so, before the girl tries to catch up, causing Rhea to increase her pace in the hope Edelgard will struggle to keep up with her.

It’s in vain as while the girl’s legs might be shorter than Rhea’s own, she has no problem keeping up with her by just increasing the pace of her steps.

“So Seiros,” Edelgard says triumphantly, a smug grin on her face, clearly pleased she has that bit of Rhea's secret now confirmed. “I thought I fucked up but it seems you fucked up even more,” she all but gloats, causing Rhea’s anger to rise. “I mean, the Goddess send one of her other Children down to punish the both of us.” She makes a dismissive gesture. “I understand why I’m here, seeing as I rebelled against the Church and the Goddess herself. I mean I expected to end up in a very bad place after my death, no matter if I succeeded in achieving my goal in life or not,” she muses out loud. “But _you,_ oh it’s much more personal for you isn’t it, lizard Saint?” she drawls menacingly, still with that stupid smug grin on her face.

Now Rhea’s anger boils and in one quick movement she takes a quick step forward and elbows Edelgard backwards in her stomach, and while the girl yelps out in pain and keels over to cradle her stomach Rhea takes it a step further and promptly kicks one of Edelgard’s legs out from underneath her.

The girl screams and wobbles dangerously, yet when she tries to move her hands –which were still clutching her stomach- to regain her balance, Rhea only has to shove both hands against her side… and promptly the Emperor stumbles to the ground along with a high pitched _“Bitch.”_

Feeling victorious Rhea continues her way past a swearing Edelgard and on towards the hill.

Yet just before she manages to even reach the hill she hears the tell-tale sound of Edelgard running to catch up to her.

Thinking the girl is out to attack in revenge her she turns around to prepare herself but to her surprise the younger woman runs straight past her with an almost cheeky grin on her face.

“Race you,” she exclaims loudly as she keeps running.

A moment later Rhea is after her, confident she’ll soon be on Edelgard’s heels.

But that turns out to be harder than she expected.

Edelgard is short yes, but her legs are quick and her condition had been maintained over the years of warfare she endured. Not to mention the Emperor is used fighting harsh battles while wearing heavy clothes and armor while wielding a heavy axe to boot.

So now, freed from all that weight, she’s quick on her feet and flexible as well.

And while Rhea might be a Saint with far more potent magic (which she can’t use right now, curse this world.) and inherent raw strength, she still has a human body -which feels more human than its ever felt- a human body which she has not been training with the dedication Edelgard clearly has.

So much to her dismay she struggles to close the distance between them.

Edelgard has reached the hill and is now half climbing half running to the top, occasionally using her hands to drag herself up more easily.

It slows her down significantly, as it turns out the hill is somewhat steep after all, and moments later Rhea finds herself on the girl’s heels, and here her height and longer legs definitely do give her an advantage.

With a jump she’s close enough to reach Edelgard, which she does instead of passing her.

Because, if Edelgard wants to play dirty… well, so can she.

With precision both her hands tightly grasp onto of Edelgard’s ankles and in one fell swoop she yanks the girl roughly backwards, causing her to stumble and lose momentum as she slides down a satisfying distance, cursing and yelling in rage all the while.

Rhea doesn’t care and smoothly makes her way to the top.

She hears a muffled, “Lizard bitch,” behind her which only serves to improve her mood.

All this dirty fighting is freeing, especially as there are no real consequences to it. Finally she can let of some of the steam she had to keep perpetually inside herself while she was confined to the role of virtuous and calm Archbishop, ignoring the last few years of her life which were an almost shameful slide into mad rage, which was still a reasonable reaction, all things considered, Rhea thinks to herself.

But being the Archbishop meant pretending she wasn’t as vindictive and prone to anger as she is. And oh, how freeing it is to be as petty as she wants to be.

She peers down towards the cabin, which is built on a flat patch of land and surrounded by a line of grassy hills in a neat circle.

As she’s taking in the sight Edelgard finally reaches the top with a dissatisfied and frustrated groan. Instead of continuing their scuffle she chooses to stand next to Rhea, her anger momentarily forgotten as her curiosity at what she’s seeing below her takes priority.

Edelgard purses her lips. “Sort of quaint, isn’t it?” she says, seemingly uncertain of what to make of the cabin.

Soon her eyes fall on the mirror, which looks more like a puddle from their vantage point perched upon the hill. “Is that the thing that will let us see both of or memories?” the girl wonders, sounding unsure.

“It seems so,” Rhea muses. “Well then, let’s get on with it shall we,” she says with exaggerated enthusiasm, and with that she gives Edelgard a hefty push in the back, causing the woman to stumble forwards with a frightened yelp.

The push purposely wasn’t hard enough to have her flying down the hill face-first and instead Rhea is rewarded with the comical sight of the little Emperor frantically trying not to slip and fall over as she’s forced to run down the hill at a rapid speed, her short legs making the sight even funnier.

Still Edelgard makes it to the bottom without falling over, much to Rhea’s disappointment, and after an inelegant stagger Edelgard finds her balance again and immediately quickly turns around to glare and shout angrily at Rhea. “ _You!”_ is the only coherent thing Rhea can make out of the younger woman’s jumbled of snarled insults.

She responds with raising two thumbs at the infuriated girl below. “Nice landing,” she mockingly praises her before she begins to make her way downwards herself. Slowly and careful until a few moments later she’s standing next to Edelgard again.

Edelgard seizes her up, gauging if it’s worth it to have another fight with Rhea but ultimately shakes her head, sighs exasperatedly and turns away from Rhea as she makes her way towards the front of the mirror.

Reassured that she won’t be subjected to a sudden fist against her jaw Rhea follows suit. Unsure of what to do the both end up sitting down on the ground in front of the mirror.

True to Melchior’s words the way the mirror has to be operated makes an astounding amount of sense to them, feeling as if they have done it regularly throughout their life, or if some sort of innate instinct inside them tells them what to do.

Rhea is the one who taps the thing first and within a second it lights up and moves upwards and shifts its angle to float in front of them. It still only looks like a mirror but when Rhea presses her hand against the surface and thinks of a specific memory involving Byleth, an innocuous one where Byleth asked her to join for tea- it immediately appears, the picture clear as crystal, the sounds just as lively and real as well, although there seems to be a slight distortion in the sound, almost as if you’re hearing something that has already been said, slightly muffled and as if you’re merely passing by.

Both Rhea and Edelgard watch in silence as they watch the scene unfold in front of them while their minds make sense of what they’re seeing and how they ought to be dealing with it.

When the Byleth in the mirror tells mirror Rhea that she really ought to go prepare for her next class Edelgard speaks up. “Can I try to summon a memory?”

She fiddles with the screen and seems to concentrate, yet nothing happens. “Huh? What am I doing wrong?” Confused she turns to Rhea. “All you did was think of a memory and so it appeared, right?”

Rhea nods. “One of Byleth and myself,” she confirms.

Something seems to dawn on Edelgard and when she taps the mirror again it lights up to reveal the Black Eagle’s classroom just as Byleth enters.

“I think I figured something out, Edelgard says. “Just now I tried to summon a memory of me and my classmates waiting for our teacher to enter the classroom, and when I tried that nothing happened.” She points at the screen. “But look, once I picked a moment a few minutes into my memory, the point where Byleth enters the classroom, it suddenly started working.”

Rhea mulls the enigma over in her mind and quickly realizes what Edelgard seemed to have realized just a moment earlier. “We can only witness memories where Byleth is present,” she says.

“Yes, or rather, I think these memories are _Byleth’s_ memories instead of our own.”

That makes sense, still how are they supposed to work with altering the past then? “Are we going to manipulate our past selves in these memories to somehow create a future where Byleth isn’t forced to choose?” Rhea asks tentatively. Such an outcome seems impossible. An effective outcome would be one where either Edelgard or Rhea would take the other out before the war starts, or convince Byleth of the evil nature of the other.

Neither seem very pleasant prospects, especially as Byleth initially seemed rather wary of Rhea to begin with, and much more comfortable around Edelgard.

A third option would be to somehow have herself and Edelgard reconcile, meet each other halfway and prevent the war altogether.

She glances at Edelgard, who seems entranced by watching Byleth teach her class, a memory from so many years ago.

Rhea would have instantly dismissed the notion of somehow making peace with this heretic, yet the almost achingly vulnerable look not entirely masked by her usual pragmatic demeanor makes her think that maybe Byleth might just be the catalyst the both of them need to find a way out of this.

But she’s thinking far too many steps ahead.

“Let’s just start from the moment where our memories differ,” she suggests. “After Byleth wakes up and finds her way back to us seems like a good start, don’t you think? I don’t really feel inclined to watch hours and hours upon you plotting against me, nor am I in the mood right now to relive the moment where she points her blade at me,” she says, her voice thin as she remembers the rage, fury and perhaps even hurt when she recalls that moment.

Edelgard considers her words and nods. “Yes, that seems reasonable. Which of our respective pasts do we start with though?” she wonders. “Seeing as in both one of us comes out as the victor with the other defeated.”

Rhea sighs. “Let’s start with the one where I die. The memory is fresh on my mind and I was too angry to make much sense of it in the moment either way, perhaps I’ll get come clarity now.” A slightly malicious grin forms on her lips. “Besides, the you in my memories was gloating terribly as you prepared to fight me, I want you to see that so you can cower in shame at such a pathetic display of arrogance,” she tells Edelgard a tad too eager.

The smaller woman bristles. “I don’t _gloat,_ ” she grumbles. “And if I did you most certainly deserved it,” she adds as she crosses her arms and huffs in annoyance, yet Rhea sees the slight reddening of the girl’s cheeks.

“Time will tell,” she shrugs airily. “Now, if you will? I don’t possess those memories so you’ll have to bring them alive in the mirror.” She gestures to the floating mirror in front of them.

“Before we start though,” Edelgard says. “Let’s propose a truce.”

“A truce?” Rhea responds, the distaste at the suggestion evident in both her face and voice.

Edelgard scowls. “I don’t like this anymore than you do but if we are going to watch ourselves degrade, fight and kill each other I’d like to be able to keep watching without resorting to punching and kicking one another every five minutes.”

Rhea considers her words and decides she has a valid point. “That seems reasonable. A truce then, where we don’t get physical if what we see makes us angry.” With a huff she adds, “I can’t promise anything about verbal retaliation.”

Edelgard quirks an eyebrow. “Fine with me, I can handle your below average insults.”

“Brat.”

“See, below average.”

Rhea immediately finds herself struggling to uphold the truce they just agreed upon, her fingers twitching as her instinct tell her to lunge at the insolent, annoying, sinful, foul woman smirking evilly right next to her.

She hates this. And she knows she’s only going to hate this more from now on.

* * *

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden.

  
Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past. 

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

Footfalls echo in the memory

\- T. S. Elliot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like it when they're petty and vindictive so much.


	3. The light for she who treaded the darkest path

“So, my memories it is then,” Rhea reaffirms. “How about we focus on the important parts for now? Those relating to our connection with Byleth and things that have an impact on the war or us? Otherwise we’d be stuck her for the rest of the day, if not longer,” she muses.

Edelgard nods and begins to mumble. “Where should we start… perhaps the moment I met her at the Goddess tower? That was the last time I really spoke to her…” she mutters as her voice trails off and a wistful look ghosts over her expression.

She shakes off her moment of emotional vulnerability a moment later and after a deep breath she seems more determined and calm. “Could you summon those memories? I know you’re not present in them but we can see the timeline stretched out so you can pick out any point from your timeline to show up right?”

Rhea hums. “That seems plausible.” She moves her hand and reaches towards the surface before stopping mid-air. "Ah, one thing." With her hand she gestures at Edelgard's exposed legs, and more importantly, the unnatural looking scars she's been aware of for quite some time now, yet was slightly too busy fighting her or having to cope with this new world to mention it. "I couldn't help but notice you have... unusual scars on your arms and legs," she says awkwardly. 

Edelgard immediately tenses up and fruitlessly attempts to pull the sleeves of her tunic further over her arms before realizing it's indeed useless to try and to so. "How kind of you to mention them," she says coldly, glaring daggers at Rhea.

"My apologies, I just wanted to uh... let you know that I've seen them... should you wish to talk about it."

"Duly noted." 

"...Alright."

Edelgard eyes her warily until her patience apparently eludes her. "Now, shall we start with the memories?" she urges Rhea on, clearly not keen on keeping the topic of conversation on her scars.

Rhea can only swallow and nod, feeling she just managed to make the mood much more tenser than it already was.

Hoping the memories will change that she presses the palm of her hand onto the glass surface of the mirror and focuses on the small notch in the timeline that should be the moment Edelgard is referring to.

The screen lights up and Byleth comes into view as she silently makes her way up the staircase of the Goddess tower, the ancient tower still standing strong among the ruined Garreg Mach surrounding it it.

Not much later the professor’s eyes fall on Edelgard, dressed in her Emperor regalia and muttering in hushed tones to herself.

Both Rhea and Edelgard watch the scene transpire in front of them in silence.

“ _Halt_ , _who’s there?!” she demands fiercely, yet obviously frightened. “…P-professor? But it can’t be. Is it really you? …But I searched everywhere for you and never found a trace…”_

_The professor tells the Emperor she was asleep all this time, which the mirror Edelgard doesn’t cope with very well and considers it a crude joke at a very inappropriate time._

Rhea watches the Edelgard in the mirror come apart as her grief over losing Byleth bubbles to the surface.

_“Do you have any idea how guilty I felt? How broken my heart was?!” she says in ragged breaths and a voice filled with hurt._

That last bit has Rhea reeling. A broken heart? Surely Edelgard didn’t value her teacher so much that she carried the grief of losing her with her for five years while still waging a war.

From the corner of her eyes she subtly glances at Edelgard and her expression is all Rhea needs for conformation the girl indeed cared deeply for her teacher. She looks as filled with grief as the version in the mirror is currently succumbing to. Her mouth is slightly agape and her eyes have such a deep hurt in them Rhea almost forgets how much she hates the woman sitting beside her, as something akin to empathy rises within her.

_The scene unfolds further as the Emperor in the mirror expresses her pain and struggles of trying to find Byleth, of continuing to fight a war with all her strength while she felt the pain of loss so deeply inside herself, as if she had been lacking something all this time._

Then, in what Rhea considers an uncharacteristic thing to do for Edelgard, the woman flings herself against Byleth and wraps her arms around the other woman tightly.

The Emperor who always needed to be in control, letting her own control slip so easily so she can hug her dear teacher? The thought stirs something in Rhea.

Next to her she hears Edelgard inhale sharply and when Rhea turns to look at the girl she’s surprised to see the younger woman is fighting to hold back her tears. Her shoulders are shuddering and her chest is heaving while she tries to keep herself together.

When she catches Rhea staring she gives her a watery smile. “I’m sorry… this is not at all how things transpired in my memory of meeting her in the Goddess tower.” A distant expression settles in her eyes, which glaze over. “…It hurts more than I thought it would,” she says wistfully and unable to hide the pain she’s feeling.

Rhea feels her throat go dry and can only find it in herself to nod, unwilling to cave in to the need of what is by all accounts a girl seeing that a lot of the pain and loss she endured could have been avoided, could have gone so different.

Quietly they continue to watch.

_“Do you… still feel the same way you did all those years ago?” the mirror Edelgard says, her voice muffled into the fabric of Byleth’s shoulder yet clearly filled with emotion._

A shiver runs through Rhea’s spine and she wonders just what it was that Byleth ‘felt’ all those years ago, and what it is that Edelgard seems to feel as well.

She shakes the thought a moment later when she watches Edelgard call her a false Goddess who must be defeated so Fodlan can be safe from ‘creatures’ like her and finally be free.

Even the Edelgard sitting beside her seems uncomfortable watching herself say that and shifts uncomfortably on the ground while she avoids looking in the general vicinity of Rhea.

_“My teacher… are you prepared to stand by my side?”_

_Mirror Byleth nods with the hint of a confident smile on her lips. “I am.”_

Next to Rhea comes a sound which cannot be anything but a sorrowful sob.

“ _What?_ Look, you got your teacher back,” Rhea scowls at her with disdain, very uncomfortable to see her enemy look so weak and sorrowful.

Edelgard promptly moves to wipe the tears pooling in her eyes away. “It’s not that… just, in my memories I so badly wanted to reach out to her, to ask her to join me again but I was so sure she wouldn’t, that she would reject me, laugh at me even… Her rejection alone could have been a severe risk to the war cause. …And so I couldn’t open up about how much I had missed her,” she says, struggling to keep her voice steady. “No… how much I _needed_ her,” she adds in a pained whisper.

Once again Rhea feels empathy bubble in her stomach and once again it only serves to infuriate her more.

“You didn’t deserve to have her by your side,” she bites.

Edelgard turns to look at her with a pained smile. “Perhaps I didn’t, no,” she murmurs and Rhea feels herself go cold by how haunted the girl’s eyes look.

_The memory devolves into something lighter, about Byleth insisting she truly was asleep and Edelgard finally deciding she probably should believe her and proceeds to explain to the other woman what happened in the five years she was gone, all the while with a small smile on her lips._

Edelgard is the one who pauses it. “Not much use to watch all of that,” she shrugs, yet her ragged breathing and swollen eyelids betray her emotional state. “Let’s see what else we can find,” she insists nonetheless.

They find out they can quickly and easily sift through Byleth’s memories with nothing but their thoughts and a combination of taps, swipes and presses against the mirror’s surface. It’s incredibly easy and it feels almost natural to them.

The both of them quickly find out neither really has the stomach to watch Byleth in battle. Edelgard admits she hated fighting her former classmates and always felt riddled with guilt for making her allies –consisting mostly of her own classmates and Byleth- fight their former classmates as well.

Rhea too, doesn’t really enjoy watching Byleth in the midst of battle. For starters she heard about these battles from afar, got the results of them in sometimes the same day the battles were held. It also doesn’t help she still clings to the hope that somewhere inside Byleth her Mother slumbers, or perhaps the two have become one now. She has wracked her brain countless times over the enigma that was Byleth, alive because she possessed the Crest stone of the Goddess. At first her feelings seemed muted, if not altogether non-existent, yet with each passing day she seemed to be more her own person than the Mother Rhea remembered from so long ago.

Still Rhea cannot help but see a flicker of her Mother inside Byleth as she wields the sword made of her Mother’s spine while mowing down enemy after enemy.

Is that her Mother too? Is that a side of her only brought to light when she fused with Byleth?

Rhea doesn’t know, and neither does she know if she wants to know.

They end up discovering how to simply swipe through entire battles with a simple gesture of their hands and only focus on important lines of dialogue that seem important to Byleth.

Rhea has to give Edelgard some credit for not shying away or trying to skip over the parts where she doesn’t shine as brightly, where she insults Rhea and her siblings deeply, calling them less than human, or a part where she watches herself, grateful and vulnerable, confess with to Byleth that she believes her heart would have gone cold had it not for Byleth by her side.

_“Because of you I feel I can walk my fated path without losing myself,” the Emperor tells Byleth with what is clearly a blush on her face._

The blush irks Rhea terribly.

_“If I had been alone I might have lost perspective and become a harsh leader with a heart of ice,” the white haired woman confesses quietly, fear and guilt written on her face._

“Did you? Become what that you telling Byleth she feared in your own timeline, I mean,” Rhea asks the smaller woman sitting beside her, who is staring at the scene with hard eyes and a tense jaw.

With a light tap on the mirror’s surface Edelgard pauses the scene.

A few moments pass and then she nods slowly. “I did. The future I fought for was more important to me than… anything else.” Finally she glances away from the mirror and looks at Rhea. “Even myself, although I only realized how much of myself I had sacrificed for my cause until it was far too late to bring myself back from the dark depths I had succumbed to.”

Rhea finds herself at a loss of words. The girl says it so easily. As if her self-destruction was unexpected yet ultimately nothing more to her than collateral damage in the grand scheme of things that were working together to make the future she envisioned real.

“Don’t you regret it?” Rhea asks finally.

Edelgard takes her words in and considers them for a moment. “Is there any use for the dead to regret things?” she responds without much emotion in her voice. Rhea catches how she slightly averts her gaze, staring at nothing just past Rhea’s head, and Rhea takes it as a sign Edelgard feels more than she’s letting on.

She points at the Emperor in the mirror, currently chatting with Byleth over how their companions –mostly the former Black Eagle class- are dear to them, could perhaps one day even feel like a family if they are freed constant stress of war they’re currently under. “That you, she seems more at peace, despite being in the middle of a war, and more open as well. Don’t you think the path you walked in your memories might have… altered you in a negative way,” she wonders, choosing her words delicately.

She’s not sure why but she feels increasingly curious if the Edelgard sitting beside her is different, changed by her own trials, loneliness and the burden of losing the war, than the one she remember gloating at herself with Byleth by her side in Rhea’s final moments.

The question clearly makes Edelgard uncomfortable, she glances at the ground and tugs at the end of the white pants she’s wearing absentmindedly. “Not just altered in a negative way,” she says quietly towards the ground, a slight hitch in her voice. “I’m permanently damaged because of what I have done and endured,” she adds in a strained whisper.

Abruptly she looks up to Rhea. “I mean my mind. I damaged my mind, in ways that I will no doubt discover if we are stuck here long enough.” She turns to look at the scene unfolding in the mirror again but only manages to watch a few seconds before she looks away once more, as the scene was getting quite wholesome, a feeling this Edelgard never managed to feel alongside her former classmates and professor.

“It’s hardly the first time my mind was damaged,” she says in a forcibly neutral voice and with a cold look in her eyes. “That time it didn’t break me, so surely this time it won’t succeed in breaking me either.” To Rhea it sound like she’s trying to remind herself of this fact.

“It doesn’t matter, alone or not, it makes no difference to what I can do,” Edelgard says, her voice a little too rough to match her face which is almost blank, yet rigidly so.

When Edelgard silently taps the mirror again to resume the scene Rhea watches her subtly from the corner from the eye.

And along with the scene unfolding Rhea can see the mask of indifference Edelgard has been working hard to keep up begin to crack.

She’s silent but ever other line from her counterpart in the mirror seems to add another crack to her mask.

_“With you by my side, I'm somehow free to be not only a leader but... simply Edelgard.” The Emperor tells Byleth gently, a true smile on her face._

Crack _._

The scene changes.

_The Emperor is glancing away from Byleth, who is standing in front of her, a patient expression on her face as she waits for the other to speak. A moment later Edelgard does so and looks at Byleth as if her emotions are threatening to spill, yet her voice is calm, if a tad warm for her usual demeanor. “I have always been seen as an untouchable princess or Emperor. No one spoke to me as an equal or met my gaze without flinching. It was lonely. …Terribly lonely. The only person I could rely on as I tried to claw my way out of the darkness was myself. But you...you have been a brilliant light. Somehow, you have chased the darkness away. And for that... I will always be grateful.”_

Crack.

Rhea watches a tear roll down Edelgard’s cheek and for a moment she shudders. Still she keeps her eyes trained on the self depicted in the mirror.

_“It seems we were fated to be friends.” Byleth tells a lightly startled Edelgard when they’re discussing how their pasts have led to this point._

_The Emperor’s cheeks redden as she searches for her words._

_“Friends... That word somehow doesn't seem adequate. Besides, we've been friends for a long time, you and I. By now, we're so much more than that, at least in my mind. You know...instead of Edelgard, you can call me just El. If you so please.”_

Without warning Edelgard all but slams her hand against the mirror, pausing it and as she slightly slides her hand across the surface, changes the scene to something innocuous, which she pauses. “I don’t want to see this anymore,” she says hoarsely, her voice faltering and her breath ragged.

While Rhea can tell Edelgard is deeply hurt by seeing herself so happy and comfortable around her former professor, even going so far as telling the other woman to use some sort of nickname for her, Rhea struggles with the anger and an odd sort of jealousy boiling in her stomach.

_More than friends._

The words echo in her mind over and over again.

Where does this heretic get the nerves to say such a thing to Byleth, who by all accounts likely has no idea just how far Edelgard has truly sunken, the full extent of the darkness she surrounded herself with and the ruthless, cruel deeds she has committed. No, the little Emperor most likely kept her dear companion in the dark when it came to the sides of her which might have disturbed Byleth to the point of defecting from the Empire.

“More than friends?” Rhea drawls almost maliciously. “Well look at you, getting all chummy with your teacher,” she continues as she glares at Edelgard.

She’s not entirely sure where this anger is coming from, or why she feels the need to hurt the already hurt Emperor even more –really she should be ashamed of that need- but Goddess does it feel good to watch Edelgard crumble as pain etches onto her face, along with embarrassment.

“ _Chummy?”_ she bristles, yet her reddened cheeks make her looks significantly less imposing than she’s trying to come across. “I do not know what you are insinuating but I would prefer it if you didn’t stoop that low,” she says curtly. “It seems that in your timeline the professor and I simply reached a close understanding. A friendship born out of battle and a mutual desire to fight for a brighter future,” she insists.

“If you say so… _El,”_ Rhea retorts.

Whatever the reason might be, apparently calling Edelgard by her silly nickname is a bit of a trigger for her as not a second later Rhea is subjugated to very angry yelling and screaming as all sorts of insults are hurled at her.

It half surprises her Edelgard doesn’t straight up attack her, what with how furious she seems, not to mention she shifted her whole body to face Rhea and looks close to lunging at her.

But in the end she doesn’t and their feeble truce holds.

“…and do _not_ call me that again,” Edelgard snaps with fury in both her eyes and voice. “You do not have that right, you monster.”

It is only because Rhea catches the sight of yet another tear rolling down Edelgard’s cheek that she doesn’t break their truce herself to lunge at the girl and throttle her.

“You’re really hurt seeing yourself have your professor by your side as a… friend, aren’t you?” Rhea can’t help but wonder, the anger she felt seconds ago replaced by genuine curiosity

“Yes,” Edelgard says harshly, her eyes hard yet behind them Rhea can see emotions swim she’s certain Edelgard doesn’t want her to see. “It’s _not_ fair,” the girl continues, her voice high and panting slightly. “I’ve wanted for nothing in my life. _Nothing!”_ she rages and trembles. “But when she was my teacher I dared to hope… no I desperately wished I wouldn’t have to tread the bloody path set out for me alone, I was so afraid and found myself clinging to the possibility that she’d be there for me somehow.”

Edelgard pulls up her knees, folds her arms over them and buries her head into her arms as a strangled wail comes muffled from her mouth. “In the Holy Tomb, when she chose to follow your orders and tried to kill me… that hope shattered and my wish evaporated. From that moment on I swore I wouldn’t open my heart for anyone else, I would walk alone as letting people in would only be a weakness, a way to hurt me without shedding my blood,” she rasps into her arms.

Rhea watches her, still aside from the way her shoulders tremble and her ragged breathing.

Finally Edelgard looks up towards the mirror once more, the surface now displaying a paused moment of Byleth wandering the ruined grounds of Garreg Mach. “To know that things could have been different had I been more open, more trusting… perhaps less afraid of being hurt…” she glances over to Rhea with a hollow expression. “It’s devastating.”

Rhea tenses at the way the younger woman’s voice seems utterly devoid of emotion.

Her feelings are a mess. She hates this heretic girl, she wants nothing more than to see her wallow in her own, well deserved misery, but then suddenly she finds herself wondering if she’ll feel similar once she sees Byleth in the timeline Edelgard experienced and some of her anger subsides, making place for the odd need to comfort Edelgard, as her grief at seeing a life where she could have found happiness, support and peace is startlingly understandable to Rhea. A life where she could have still have her family by her side…

Acting purely on her emotions rather than her rational thoughts she gently, as not to startle the other woman, reaches out her hand and tentatively wraps her fingers delicately around Edelgard’s hand, whose eyes widen as she tenses up slightly at the sudden contact.

“We are in this together, aren’t we?” Rhea says and immediately wonders why she failed to curb stomp her need to comfort the white haired woman.

“Are we?” comes the reply, a hint of disbelief in the girl’s voice.

Rhea nods. “This moment might be painful for you, but remember this timeline ends with your victory …and my death.” She smiles wryly. “Perhaps that is something to look forward to, no?” she hums.

To her surprise and relief Edelgard chuckles. “That’s a generous way for you to try and make me feel better,” she smiles.

“Don’t get used to it,” Rhea tells her curtly, yet not unkindly so. “Besides, I have the nagging feeling that once I see what happens to me in your timeline I’ll be in for quite some pain as well,” she explains.

Tentatively she glances at Edelgard, who is eying her curiously as well, as if she’s expecting Rhea to say something more.

“This might sound utterly strange to you but how about we uh… comfort one another, when it gets too much for one of us, I mean,” Rhea says, dismayed she couldn’t keep the awkwardness she felt out of her voice. Still, to add to her sincerity she gently squeezes Edelgard’s hand. “As an addition to our truce, to make it easier on the both of us,” she concludes with a small smile she hopes comes across as reassuring.

Edelgard takes a moment to consider her offer, her eyes glazing over slightly as she finds herself deep in thought, before reaching a conclusion. She meets Rhea’s eyes with a more open expression Rhea hasn’t seen since they got stranded her and gives a slow nod. “Misery loves company, right,” she smiles almost gently at Rhea, who exhales in relief at not being ridiculed for her offer.

“Right,” she agrees.

It seems to give Edelgard the confidence to scoot over closer while she moves her hand so that instead of Rhea’s hand being splayed atop of hers they’re now holding hands, which she moves to rest on the ground between them. “I’d rather not face this alone,” Edelgard admits, sounding small.

With a sift sigh she squeezes Rhea’s hand in hers. “For the truce and for comfort,” Edelgard says almost stately, yet the uncertain smile ghosting on her lips reveals how vulnerable she feels.

“For the truce and for comfort,” Rhea agrees, giving Edelgard’s hand a gentle squeeze in return.

The contact is nice, perhaps even more comforting than either of them had anticipated, and which neither of them realized they were in such dire need of.

Edelgard seems much more calm now, her breathing returned to normal and her posture more relaxed, and for some time the two of them simply watch Byleth interact with Edelgard and the rest of the former Black Eagles, who have all stayed by her side in this timeline.

Even in the middle of a war they are a rowdy bunch and while mirror Edelgard seems quite exasperated at their antics, the Edelgard besides Rhea breaks into quiet bouts of laughter, or even the odd giggle from time to time.

“They really were like that,” she comments at one point. “It’s… otherworldly to see them grown and still so at ease around me.”

Momentarily her eyes glaze over and her breath stutters, yet another squeeze from Rhea’s hand to hers quickly jolts her out of it. “Sorry,” she mumbles. “I suppose it’s more conflicting than I thought to see my former classmates as my allies instead of my enemies.”

They watch these less crucial events some more, yet Edelgard has lost the spark of mirth she possessed earlier and as the threat of war begins to rear its head, the Black Eagles do lose some of their high spirits as well as they prepare for battle.

It prompts Rhea to speak up again. “Shall we just skip to the end part? We really do need to see both of our deaths if we want to get a grasp on how to begin fixing things before the events in the holy tomb”

The younger woman tenses up slightly and then nods.

“Good, because I still want to point out the part where you are gloating,” Rhea tells her with narrowed eyes and a small mischievous smirk.

The smaller woman only huffs in annoyance. “I doubt I did, and if I did you definitely deserved it.” She looks down at their intertwined hands and back up to Rhea. “Well, let’s get it over with then,” she sighs.

“Very well.”

And with that Rhea uses her free hand to easily swipe through the timeline, only stopping when she sees both Byleth, Edelgard and herself in her Dragon form, standing across from each other in what cannot be anything else but the part leading up to the death she still remembers so vividly.

“Here we go,” she mutters stiffly and taps the mirror’s surface to let the scene unfold.

“ _Give it back!” Rhea’s immaculate form screeches in undiluted fury._

It is a painful reminder just how much of herself she had lost to rage in the battle leading up to this moment, she remembers what she felt in those moments, but hardly what she was thinking.

Edelgard glances sideways to look at her. “With ‘it’ do you mean the Crest stone of the Goddess you implanted in Byleth?” she asks with sincere curiosity.

It’s a shock for Rhea to hear the girl has somehow come to learn that, as she was quite confident Edelgard never learned of that information in her own timeline. It makes her both more curious and more afraid of what she’s going to see in Byleth’s memories where the woman sides with her.

But for now she brushes it off and only gives a small nod in confirmation, as the scene keeps going on in front of them.

_The Emperor, full of determination and adrenaline stands before Rhea’s other form, and despite that their considerate height difference making Edelgard look up to meet Rhea’s head she still looks at her as if she’s less._

_“When humanity stands strong and people reach out for each other, there is no need for gods,” Edelgard speaks, her voice fierce but controlled._

Rhea squeezes Edelgard’s hand somewhat hard to quickly draw her attention. “See, you were gloating,” she points out to the girl smugly.

Edelgard makes an annoyed sound. “It was a good gloat,” she insists stubbornly. “Besides, shhh. I’m trying to watch here,” she says urgently, scowling at Rhea for but a second before her eyes are glued to the mirror’s surface once more.

_“Rhea, your reign of tyranny is over,” the Emperor continues as she prepares to strike._

“Was that a good gloat too then?” Rhea asks the transfixed girl mockingly.

 _“Shhh,”_ Edelgard hisses at her, yet the slight reddening of her cheeks reveal the embarrassment she feels at watching herself say that.

After some more boasting from the Emperor in the mirror and an eye roll from Rhea looking at her she watches Edelgard along with Byleth make a dash and jump to deal the final blow on herself. She remembers how it felt. A moment of sharp pain starting from her skull and reverberating all the way towards the end of her tail and then nothing. The pain was gone and within seconds thinking clearly had become impossible. All that remained had been confusion and sorrow, the question of how things could have come this far the last thing on her mind as her consciousness faded.

Watching it from another angle, and one where she is still coherent enough to see it through, reveal her death looked quite gruesome.

Still, it hardly bothers her. She already felt the anguish of dying in that moment, seeing it happen again feels almost bland in comparison.

It’s the opposite for Edelgard however, who, at the moment Amyr and the Sword of the Creator collide with Rhea’s head, gasps sharply and winces as her body tenses up. She squeezes Rhea’s hand with her fingers tightly, looking pale and with wide and fears truck eyes as she watches how green blood rapidly begins to pour from the gaping wound on Rhea’s head as her Dragon form visibly weakens, stumbling for a moment before closing her eyes and crashing to the ground as her strength leaves her.

“I… I did that?” Edelgard asks weakly as she numbly watches the green blood begin to form a wide circle around the head of Rhea’s fallen body.

“In my memories, yes,” Rhea confirms, oddly pleased that the Edelgard next to her is shocked –if not appalled- to be confronted with the sight of herself murdering Rhea.

“I… I didn’t think it would look like that… or that I’d feel this way at seeing myself kill you,” Edelgard stammers stiffly.

“What are you feeling?”

“…Shame.” Comes the response in the form of a barely audible whisper.

Rhea has no idea what to feel or do, her head is a mess. She wants to comfort the girl next to her, as being confronted with seeing another version yourself murder another being in such a gruesome way –while boasting shortly before no less- must be painfully conflicting.

But it’s still _herself_ Edelgard murdered, which makes it a bit paradoxical, to comfort her murderer, despite this Edelgard never having done so.

In the end she leaves it in the open, gently squeezing the hand in her own as she speaks. “War is hell, for everyone involved,” she says as she looks at the clear sky above them, peaceful and unchanging.

“Yes… Yes it is,” comes the hoarse and quiet reply. “Should we see what happens next?” Edelgard wonders with clear hesitation, yet also eager to get this over with.

Rhea nods. “Probably yes, although as you may understand, this is where my memories end.”

She gets a sheepishly guilty look at saying that.

It’s not however, where _Byleth’s_ memories end, much to the mutual surprise of Rhea and Edelgard.

_The Edelgard visible in the mirror pants as she wonders out loud if they really did it, if it’s really over._

_Before she can feel even a glimmer of relief she watches Byleth, only a few paces next to her, suddenly slump down and fall to the floor where her body stills and remains unmoving._

_The Emperor is a blur as she hurries to Byleth’s side, kneeling and cradling her in her arms as Edelgard presses her head against the chest of the unconscious woman, whose sword falls from her limb hand._

_A few tense moments pass by._

Rhea knows what the Emperor is looking for, and what she won’t find.

_And indeed when Edelgard raises her head again her eyes widen as grief etches onto her expression, tears welling up in her eyes but a second later._

The Edelgard in the mirror likely doesn’t know just how much Byleth’s life is tied to that of Rhea, she thinks to herself, as she was the one who breathed life into her as a newborn all those years ago. Life that was part of her own essence. And now that Rhea has died, Byleth won’t be able to rely on Rhea’s gift of life that bound her body to her Mother’s Crest stone, the power that was ultimately what let Byleth live and was what gave her a soul of sorts.

A quick glance to the Edelgard next to Rhea reveals that this version of Edelgard also had no idea what the life force driving Byleth was, as the girl’s expression is almost identical to that of the crying Emperor grieving in the mirror.

“No…” she stammers, her voice full of anguish. “Not after everything she did for me, not after she stayed by my side.” She glances to Rhea, who also can’t help but feel a distorted sort of sorrow watching the person whom she hoped to become her Mother die in such a way. “It’s not _fair,”_ Edelgard exclaims in quiet anguish, her voice a strangled mess.

But then something stirs, causing both spectators to train their eyes on the mirror in an instant.

It’s not something that stirs, it’s _Byleth._

_A muted ripple cascades from her chest, starting from her chest, where her unbeating heart lies underneath and gradually ebbing away over the rest over body._

_Startled, Edelgard quickly presses her head against Byleth’s chest once more and after only a few seconds her eyes shimmer with tentative but fervent elation, quickly turning into happiness she doesn’t even try to contain._

_Byleth’s heart beats._

_Byleth lives._

It shouldn’t be possible and seeing it happen is disconcerting to Rhea. How can Byleth live without the support of Rhea’s magic woven into her soul?

The answer comes to her when she watches the Emperor carefully, gently pick up Byleth.

_Edelgard cradles her former teacher in her arms like she’s the most precious thing the woman has ever held this close to her, as soft cries escape her lip, along with murmured sounds of relief, of happiness, and finally the sound of quiet, melodious laughter comes from her as she buries her head into Byleth’s shoulder._

Rhea gasps when she sees what happens next.

 _Still unconscious, Byleth lies limp in Edelgard’s arms, yet suddenly the light shade of green hair, that hair so alike to that of the Goddess, quickly drains its color and mere seconds_ _her hair color is back to the cobalt blue it had been all of Byleth’s life._

Her hair. No… it can’t be. Rhea feels dread creeping up on her, leaving her feel cold inside.

_Shortly after Byleth stirs and opens her eyes, seemingly unbothered by what is going on and quickly soothed by the familiar voice of Edelgard, who is still murmuring softly against her shoulder, finding comfort as she relaxes in the Emperor’s arms._

All Rhea can focus on is how not only Byleth’s hair lost its divine color, but also her eyes.

Rhea knows what it means. Her Mother’s Crest stone in Byleth has seized to work, if it isn’t altogether broken or shattered.

The Goddess that might have dwelled in Byleth is gone, along with her soul.

Yet Byleth still _lives._

All this time Rhea had been so sure the woman was only alive because she possessed her Mother’s soul, that even if she had developed a personality of her own she was at her core still the Goddess she was meant to be, only a Goddess with no memories and whose personality was shaped by the years she lived as a human.

But there Byleth is, with a beating heart and without the colors of the Goddess adorning her features.

No longer a vessel for the Goddess but instead truly a human being all on her own.

Had this always been the case? Rhea shivers at the thought. The implications alone are enough to make her feel riddled with guilt.

With her head reeling and her conflicting emotions threatening to spill she averts her gaze from the scene and instead glances at the woman beside her.

And promptly feels all her confusing thoughts and feelings washed away as they make way for single minded anger.

Because the Emperor sitting next to her is smiling. Smiling so innocently, her happiness written all over her face, with even the tears rolling down her cheeks being a result of her intense joy at the sight of seeing herself hold her beloved teacher in her arms, alive and safe.

It ticks Rhea off in the worst of ways. She had to watch the last shimmer of hope at bringing her Mother back die out while the heretic sitting right next to her gets to see her little cheesy happy ending with her professor.

With whom she’s really quite taken with. A pang of anger makes Rhea break her silence.

“A touching reunion,” she bristles. “Were it not for the fact my body is bleeding out just a few steps away from where you are getting chummy with your teacher again,” she adds with what she feels is an adequate amount of distaste in her voice.

“Oh, shut it,” is all Edelgard says as she keeps her eyes trained on the pair in the mirror, who are still holding one another, silent but for the odd giggle or sob.

Rhea promptly pauses the scene and skips to another, causing an angry hiss from Edelgard, which only serves to satisfy her anger.

Ignoring Edelgard’s complains Rhea idly swaps through the remaining memories Byleth have of this timeline and is curious to discover there isn’t much left.

She settles somewhere very close to the end. Maybe Edelgard fucks up really badly and blows up half of Fodlan. Surely that would be enough of a bad end to cause her family –wherever it is they might be- to decide her timeline wasn’t going anywhere good and simply abort it.

It turns out to be a scene of Byleth and Edelgard chatting, and much to Rhea’s dismay, nothing seems amiss. In fact, they seem quite happy.

Rhea watches the Emperor looking at Byleth with an almost clumsy sort of longing and suddenly she gets the nagging feeling she won’t like where this is going.

_“I don't know what the future holds, but...come what may, will you stay by my side? You chose to protect me at the Holy Tomb. Will you choose me again?”_

Classy, Rhea thinks, to blatantly ask the person who is nearly the entire reason you made it this far to stick with her, by not so subtly reminding Byleth she once already choose to do so no less. Such freedom of choice this Emperor, who supposedly wanted to free the people of Fodlan and let them decide their own fate, is giving the one person who she cannot seem to let go. Truly a grand example of selflessness and letting those you care for decide their own path.

_Edelgard looks down and seems uncharacteristically unsure of herself._

_“What I'm trying to say is...I need you,” she mutters awkwardly towards the ground._

Oh, so it _is_ personal then, Rhea scowls inwardly. It seems when Edelgard is victorious she finally dares to admit to herself she needs other people.

“I would never say that,” the Edelgard next to her insists firmly, yet her eyes are transfixed on the much more vulnerable version of herself in the mirror with a hint of that longing Rhea just saw in the mirror Edelgard.

_Byleth suddenly turns to look more emotional than is usual for the mercenary, first seeming unsure of herself, then settling for determination as her cheeks flush slightly._

_“El…” she murmurs. “Would you please accept this ring?” From her pocket she pulls what is by all account a wedding ring._

Both Rhea and Edelgard choke on their own breath while they simultaneously let go of each other’s hand. Edelgard manages to produce a strangled and mortified noise. “ _What?!”_ she blurts out loudly.

Rhea feels too paralyzed to speak, let alone make sense of what she’s feeling.

Mirror Edelgard has no such problems however, and gives a beautiful speech as she accepts the ring, while the Rhea and Edelgard who are watching are so frozen they can do nothing but watch.

_“You called me El. That's... I... That means more than I can say.” She says, smiling brightly as a blush adorns her face “And this ring... It's lovely. Thank you, my teach- no, my darling. I will happily accept it.”_

_She admires the ring which she had delicately placed in the palm of her hand._

_“I must admit, I feared my feelings would be unrequited. So long as I had you by my side, it never mattered how many enemies I amassed. You were all I needed. All this time, I longed to share my feelings with you, and it seems you wished for the same. Now, our wishes have come true. This feeling... it's overwhelming.”_

_Byleth too seems overcome with happiness. “I promise to always be there for you,” she says, firm but with warmth in her voice._

_“I promise the same. Together, we can achieve anything.”_

Disgusted by this display of cheesy confessions of love between two people who really have no right to be together Rhea makes an annoyed sound and focuses her gaze on Edelgard instead.

The girl still looks frozen in shock, her mouth slightly agape without a single muscle in her body moving as she watches herself and Byleth exchange words of romance, her eyes wide.

Slowly though, some of the ice inside her seems to melt. Her cheeks fluster even more than they already had as tears begin to well up in her eyes.

It isn’t until small, happy smile forms on her lips while she uses her arm to wipe away the tears, to no avail, that something in Rhea cracks. 

This girl has no business being so damnably happy at watching this, what is by all accounts likely seeing a dream she buried deep inside herself come true.

“You do know the church condemns love between two women?” she helpfully reminds her in a cold, low voice. “In fact, even if Byleth proposed to you, the two of you never would be able to get married,” she adds spitefully.

Edelgard pretends to ignore Rhea’s comments for a good few seconds before she turns over to face her with an almost menacing expression on her face. “It’s a good thing then that the version of me there,” she says as she gestures towards the mirror, “just took out the person in charge of the church,” she points out smugly.

Rhea balks at the insolence of this sinful brat. “Even so the people would never allow it, no matter how many reforms you would force down their throats they would never accept an Emperor to marry another woman, let alone one who adds no political benefits to your reign,” Rhea retorts.

“Like I care. I would just marry her in secret. No one needs to know,” Edelgard mutters yet seems clearly resolved in her choice.

“I see you have thought this through already. Tell me, did this you, who never got to have your precious teacher by her side, secretly hope for an outcome such as this?” Rhea drawls. “Did you fantasize about a happily ever after with the woman who would become the one to slay you in the end?”

Now Edelgard’s cheeks flush with anger as her eyes flare with rage, perhaps even hurt. “Of course not… not after she choose to side with you… no, never mind, not before that either,” she backpedals quickly. “Whatever I thought I might have felt for her as her student, it was nothing but wishful thinking. I knew that, even back then.”

“Yet you seem awfully pleased to see another version of yourself seeing Byleth reciprocate your feelings,” Rhea insists, trying to get under the younger woman’s skin.

Edelgard hisses. “Oh shut it. You’re just seething because the woman you wanted to be your Mother first killed you and then put a ring on the woman you hated most,” she says with a malicious grin tugging on her lips and with an air of undeserved victory.

“Do. _Not_. Go. There,” Rhea growls, her voice barely under her control. She takes a moment to regain her composure and discovers that instead of anger it’s grief that’s fueling her rage. “That Byleth isn’t my Mother either way,” she says much softer as the sorrow she feels makes its way into her voice. “Not anymore, at least.”

“Her hair and eyes,” she explains when Edelgard shoots her a curious glance. “Those, along with her heart starting to beat meant that whatever part of my Mother lived inside of her, that might have been a part of who she was, is now gone from her… perhaps gone from this world altogether,” she explains, wishing her voice had been more steady as she spoke.

“Oh,” Edelgard says quietly and without anger. “That must be… difficult to see,” she adds, her voice neutral but not unkind.

“It is yes,” Rhea admits wistfully. She can’t help but feel a hint of hope that in the timeline Edelgard experienced Byleth does find the true powers and memories of the Goddess slumbering within her.

A silence falls between the two of them and both end up watching the mirror again.

_Edelgard, who had been so flustered earlier, now seems almost confident and reassured that their love will prevail. “To think that I may truly call you my partner and equal now... The solitary reign of Edelgard has come to an end. From now on, we walk this path together. With time and care, the darkness shrouding this world will be lifted. You and I will become the light that shines over Fódlan... just as you have shined upon my life.”_

When Byleth beams at hearing those words Rhea loses it once again.

“Your _light?”_ she sneers. “Tacky.”

Edelgard ignores her, which only serves to irk Rhea more.

A little while later the events in the mirror slowly fade to black as the sounds become more muted as well.

“That was it?” Edelgard says with clear disappointment in her voice.

“It seems so. I’m glad, I’d rather not watch you make more sappy speeches to your beloved,” Rhea mocks.

Edelgard leans back almost leisurely, although it’s clearly faked. “Pity, it would have been fun to see you get upset over that as well,” she snaps back.

A moment later the girl abruptly turns away from Rhea, her back turned towards Rhea as both of her hands begin to purposelessly fiddle with the grass growing around them.

She keeps this up for some time, along with an increasingly tense silence. Rhea watches her intently and notices how the younger woman’s shoulders go tense, while the movements of her fingers playing with the grass becomes more rigid, violent even as Rhea watches her tear off some blades of grass and crumple them needlessly in her hands.

“I thought it would be easier,” she finally says, her voice hollow as she speaks into the distance. “To see a future where I succeed in achieving my goal.”

A weary sigh escapes her lips.

“But seeing it now… it’s hard to even care about seeing myself succeed, killing you even made me feel remorse, or at least not very proud.” Still she won’t turn back. “Instead I saw myself… grow. For the first time since I survived those experiments I wasn’t alone. I had friends. Friends whom I felt I was always betraying when I was still their classmate, whom I truly betrayed once I raised my axe at you, along with the professor who I wanted to care for so much more than I let myself when I was still her student.”

Rhea can’t do anything but listen, yet manages to make a mental note to find a delicate way to question Edelgard about the experiments she just mentioned.

The younger woman remains silent for another moment, yet the tremble in her shoulders and the soft sound of her inhaling sharply reveals she’s trying not to cry.

“But now I witnessed myself surrounded by the people I wish I could have befriended as my true friends and allies, even Hubert was more to me than my loyal vassal to that version of me. And as for Byleth… she was there, she truly guided me, kept me of the dark path that I myself have treaded, that has irreversibly changed me.”

Finally she turns around partially, facing Rhea with tear stained cheeks. “You might find it tacky but I think she truly was my light in your timeline. The light I needed to keep myself off that dark path… this path on which I have done so many horrible things…”

A wail of sorrow escapes her lips. “All these years I was so alone and I was convinced that was how it was meant to be, that it would make me stronger if I didn’t have anyone to rely on, because it meant I was in control of everything. …But now, seeing the opposite, seeing myself surrounded by love and warmth, dependable allies… I think that version of me was much stronger.”

Rhea had felt too frozen to respond, and too transfixed on listening to Edelgard speak, to say anything herself but now she does find something to say. “You were indeed much stronger, you managed to defeat me after all,” she says, the ghost of a smile tugging on her lips.

Edelgard makes a sound between a laugh and a sob. “It doesn’t feel like that kind of strength.” Her expression turns softer and a look akin to shame settles on her features. “If I could have lived a life surrounded by the people I loved then perhaps I wouldn’t have minded to abandon my goal, the war altogether, just to be with them,” she whispers achingly soft.

Ah. Perhaps Edelgard calling Byleth her light makes a startling amount of sense after all. If this Edelgard, with a mind ravaged by a bloody war she lost, filled with loneliness and sorrow, can find it in herself to give up the goal she sacrificed everything for, just because Byleth stayed with her to stave of the darkness, then perhaps there is hope for a timeline without a war after all.

If that hope holds up after Rhea gets to see the other timeline remains to be seen, however.

“This must have been quite emotionally draining for you to witness,” she tells Edelgard, who indeed looks weary. “Would you like to wait with watching your timeline until you feel better?”

Edelgard shakes her head without hesitation. “No. We should see both as soon as possible. Besides, you deserve to see my story, to see me at my darkest. It would only be fair.”

Rhea smiles and gives her an encouraging nod. “Very well then. Come,” she says as she gestures for Edelgard to close the distance between them again. “I’ll admit I’m rather curious as to what my role is in your memories.”

The way Edelgard falters slightly as she crawls closer, with her eyes widening slightly as she pointedly averts her gaze tells Rhea that whatever happens to herself in Edelgard’s timeline, seeing the girl startle like this doesn’t bode well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so much more fun to write than I initially thought. To make the worst incarnations of themselves see what could have been had they opened up more, and also discover that even victory wasn't all that glorious. hnngh the AngstTM
> 
> Minor spoiler for next chapter but I do hope y'all noticed and appreciated Rhea beautifully digging her own grave by telling Edelgard it's wrong for two women to love each other and that she still considers Byleth (at least with green hair) to be her mom in some sort of way, because you bet your ass she's gonna watch herself s-support Byleth in the next chapter.
> 
> And up for El next chapter: How to tactfully explain to the angry, strong, tall woman next to you that the reason she's mostly absent for a good part of Byleth's memories is because you're kind of keeping her locked up in the dungeons in your castle. Whoops.


	4. Where the sun doesn't shine

Edelgard seems oddly quiet once they switch to her timeline and memories, yet Rhea decides to chalk it up to her comments regarding how hard it was to see another version of her grow into a much warmer and open person compared to her own experiences.

Still not quite sure just which memories are important they decide to once again start with Edelgard’s encounter with Byleth at the Goddess tower, as it seems to be the first significant memory Byleth has after waking up from her long slumber.

Edelgard is all tense, silent and stiff when she looks for it, her face pale and her lips a thin line, making it clear she’s not looking too forward to experiencing this memory of hers once again.

Her hand trembles once she finds the beginning of the part she was looking for and she hesitates, giving Rhea a tentative glance with a smile on her lips but pain in her eyes. She breathes in deeply and exhales before nodding and tapping the mirror’s surface.

Together they watch Byleth walk in silence for a while, as she makes her way through the abandoned ruins of Garreg Mach.

_She looks tense, perhaps even haunted, as if she cannot fully comprehend she’s truly been gone five years and the destruction she sees all around her is what’s left of the monastery she had grown so fond of, along with the students dwelling there. Her eyes dart to all kinds of broken decorations and statues, cracked walls and holes in the roof._

Rhea too, feels pain when looking what happened to the one place she called home for so many years and has to suppress a flare of rage for the woman sitting next to her. She’ll save her anger for later. And besides, Edelgard already looks close to cracking as well, or at least her mask does.

_Byleth stills and her eyes fall on a figure in the distance. She remains standing there, unmoving as she takes in the new appearance of her former student, so clearly defined by her hair and crimson attire._

_She opens her mouth, perhaps to call out to her, yet a flicker of pain crosses her features, of remorse perhaps, and with the subtlest shake of her head she closes her mouth again and walks toward the other woman, making no effort to muffle the sounds of her approaching footsteps._

“What was on her mind? Did she want to tell me anything?” says the Edelgard besides Rhea with longing in her voice at the same time Byleth gets close enough to the Emperor in the mirror to and Rhea hears her mutter to herself in what sounds like bitter frustration.

_Edelgard seemed to be lost in thought, talking to herself about why she’s even here, about how it’s frustrating her that she even came, despite everything, despite knowing it won’t be any use._

_She’s so occupied with her internal conflict she hears Byleth approach far too late for a practiced warrior, almost shamefully late. If Byleth had been here to kill her, she would have been dead already._

_With a start she abruptly turns around, her body posed for battle, yet she instantly seems to forget all her battle instincts when she recognizes who just all but sneaked up on her._

_Her eyes grow wide. “Huh?! It’s… you!” she exclaims, her voice still under her control but breaking and cracking at the seams._

_“Wha… what are you doing here?” she continues, her voice suddenly much softer, almost warmly so._

_“I came her for you,” Byleth murmurs, an emotion lacing her voice that even Byleth doesn’t quite seem to understand, yet she seems determined to stick to her answer all the same_

_Edelgard’s eyes widen even more, though instead of just fear there is a hint of longing in them now. “For me?” she says with that same longing. She gazes into Byleth’s eyes and the flicker of warmth, of hope and belonging in her eyes show how much she wanted to hear those words. …And how badly she wished she could believe them._

_Abruptly the warmth in her eyes disappears and with a shake of her head the mask of the Emperor is firmly back in place. “Highly doubtful,” she says curtly, her voice cold. “So you were alive… what have you been doing all this time?”_

_Byleth looks somewhere in-between guilty and sheepish when she responds. “I was sleeping,” she confesses._

_The Emperor looks at her blankly for a second then sighs, visibly disappointed. As if she considers something lost. “Joking at a time like this… Well, if you don’t wish to tell me, I won’t try to persuade you.” The pain in her voice is faint but there. The duty and commitment to her cause in her voice are clear however._

_Her eyes narrow and she looks even more tense. “All that matters is this… will you return to the Empire with me?” she asks under the perfect guise of her mask._

_Byleth looks at her, visibly conflicted, fear-struck and sad, before lowering her head to the ground. “I…” she murmurs. “I…”_

_Nothing more comes out of her mouth._

_Edelgard looks pained as well at this point, no longer daring to look her former teacher in her eyes. “Hesitation,” she states dully. “It betrays your true answer.”_

_She takes a deep sigh, steeling herself before looking Byleth deep in her eyes. “That means... we’re enemies now, you and I.” It sound like an official declaration. It sounds like a painful breakup._

_Byleth’s expression is muted yet there is sadness marring her expression, as if she doesn’t believe she has it in her to change Edelgard’s mind any longer, as if she only now realizes what her five year absence has done. To the world. To her precious student._

_She came too late._

_“My teacher,” Edelgard continuous when the other remains silent, her mind made up, resolved and assured of what she must do. “The time for discussion comes to an end!”_

_For a second she hesitates again as her eyes search for Byleth’s. There is a silent plea in them. For Byleth to change her mind, for Byleth to stop her before it’s too late. She shakes off her hesitation as quickly as it flooded her senses and straightens herself before reaching for her sword._

_Edelgard is a blur when she charges at the other woman, yet Byleth only draws her sword only at the last second, not to attack but merely to block Edelgard’s blow._

_It causes a temporary stalemate of sorts and Edelgard cannot stop herself from speaking up once more._

_“Even though our swords may cross as they do now…” she utters and then uses her full force to drive Byleth back, who retaliates and quickly strikes back, again not to harm Edelgard but out of self-defense, to prolong the stalemate._

_After Edelgard won’t relent Byleth finally adds some of her skills into the fray and the two exchange blows on a more equal level, fast and dangerous._

_Edelgard aims for Byleth’s neck and it’s clear the woman sees it coming, but instead of blocking the strike she mimics it._

_Another stalemate, but a potentially lethal one now, as both women are standing close to one another, each with the other’s sword at their neck._

_The Emperor seems to find some sort of peace in this outcome. Proof that both of them could kill one another, yet the time isn’t right and fate hasn’t decided who shall cause the death of the other._

_“…there is no denying that our chosen paths never will,” she finishes her earlier line with a sad, resigned smile._

_Leaving herself completely prone, she draws back her sword and turns her back to Byleth, who seems surprised by her action and lowers her own sword as well._

_“Goodbye, my teacher,” Edelgard says with her back turned to Byleth. “Next time we meet one of us shall breathe their last.”_

_She stands still in her place for just another short moment before walking away, not sparing her former teacher another glance._

_And so she misses the hard stare with which Byleth numbly watches her go._

_And the tears that well up in those same unblinking eyes._

The Edelgard who went through all of this once already doesn’t, however.

She pauses the memory and sits quietly for a moment, her eyes vacant as they gaze at nothing.

“Do you think that… that if I had done things differently there… if I had asked her things instead of answering for her, if I had been patient and let her talk instead of caving in to my fear and pain… that the outcome could have been different?” she asks Rhea without meeting her eyes.

Rhea turns her head to the girl sitting next to her, who is still staring blankly ahead while visibly struggling to fight her urge to cry.

“You thought all doors through which you could reach her were already closed when you first lay eyes on her in the tower,” she says, not unkindly but not very gentle either. “Yet it was you who systematically closed every door that was still open with your words and actions,” she finishes, her words harsh but only as it’s her honest opinion and not out of spite or malice.

“You’re right,” Edelgard mumbles. “I remember how I felt when I saw her. I was so hurt and confused. I was convinced she was there to cause my goal harm, to oppose me. That she was there on behalf of you or Dimitri… but she really had no idea what had happened in those five years.” She remains quiet for a few seconds before speaking up again, her voice more frail now. “Perhaps if I had given her the chance… well maybe she wouldn’t have joined my forces… but maybe she could have remained my friend. I would have minded losing the war less if she had still been my friend, somewhere far away and safe from me… but still, it would have meant I didn’t die alone.”

“Not that I enjoy the thought of such an outcome… but I feel that Byleth wished for that as well. She looked sad when you declared her your enemy and drew your sword,” Rhea agrees, despite knowing her words will hurt Edelgard only more and serve as confirmation of the mistakes she made.

But those are the consequences of Edelgard’s actions, Edelgard who is her enemy. So it is not at all her problem if Edelgard feels remorse and sorrow looking back at her own actions.

Rhea mules over the memory in her mind, wondering why Edelgard tried to make their brief fight seem more like a statement than a true challenge. Her movements much more delicate and precise than she usually would when wielding her axe.

Wait… her axe.

Why wasn’t she carrying her axe?

Rhea had been mostly paying attention to Byleth and Edelgard themselves, searching their faces intently for the emotions both of them display less than other people, both for different reasons, and hardly paid attention to what they were holding, or their surroundings.

But every memory she recalls Edelgard fighting she always used an axe and never a… sword.

So the sword was a statement as well, she carried it with a reason.

Without warning, and without giving Edelgard time to understand what she’s doing, or just explain it to the girl herself, she swipes across the mirror.

The memories in this timeline might not belong to her, and so are harder to track and make sense of, but she can move through specific ones and narrow it down to the seconds if she wants to.

She pauses the memory less than a minute before it ended, right where Byleth and Edelgard’s blades meet.

Rhea curses loudly, startling Edelgard, who was already confused at what she was doing and who now jolts her head to Rhea as she gasps in surprise.

Slowly Rhea’s eyes meet those of Edelgard and she puts as much cold fury in her glare as possibly.

“Edelgard,” she drawls, her voice low and thin as ice. “Tell me. _Why_ do you have my sword?”

It sounds like a question, but really, it’s a demand. One that will have repercussions if Edelgard doesn’t respond honestly… and _quickly_.

“Uhm…” the girl mutters as she pales and freezes. Uh… well…” she trails off, clearly not wishing to divulge the reason why.

“ _Now,_ girl,” Rhea hisses.

“I had hoped I wouldn’t have had to tell you this until you had seen some more of Byleth’s memories but…”

Again she stops talking.

“Spill it, Edelgard. My patience is wearing _very_ thin,” Rhea drawls, her voice threatening and angry.

“You are currently otherwise indisposed,” Edelgard says in one short breath.

“I’m what?” Rhea balks, confused and increasingly displeased.

“In the palace in Enbarr,” Edelgard adds with a quiver in her voice.

In Enbarr? What would she be doing in Enbarr? Leading a siege? No, that must have had little tactical advantage if the situation was similar to her own timeline around when Byleth woke up. And most importantly of all, Edelgard would never leave Enbarr if Rhea was threatening it.

Which means she isn't there to fight… and likely not willingly there either.

“You took me prisoner,” she concludes angrily.

The way Edelgard remains looking straight ahead of her and merely reacts with the tiniest of nods only serves to infuriate Rhea even more, to the point she momentarily loses control of her thoughts as her mind goes white with rage.

“Truce! _Truce!” U_ s what jolts Rhea from her blind anger, coming in the form of a very panicked and terrified looking Edelgard.

When her vision returns to her she finds herself half on top of the girl with one hand pulling the fabric around her chest upwards so firmly that Edelgard is hanging in her grasp while her other hand is around her neck, close to clamping down on her windpipe.

“We had a truce,” Edelgard pleads her feebly, fear in her eyes and both her hands around Rhea’s wrist as she tries to pull the hand around her neck off of her. “Please,” she nearly whimpers.

Rhea grunts and drops the girl roughly onto the floor as she lets go.

“You’re not worth the effort. You’d be back on your feet in minutes no matter how much I damage your body, it wouldn’t be satisfying enough,” she growls and turns away from Edelgard, who remains lying on the ground, panting slightly. Probably more out of shock than pain, Rhea thinks, as her body should be able to take this easily.

“How did you even manage to keep me imprisoned in Enbarr? Or weaken me enough to imprison me at all for that matter. I should have been easily able to escape whatever you threw at me,” Rhea wonders.

“I should probably show you something,” comes the quiet voice of Edelgard, who is now lying on her back, almost comfortably so, as she stares up at the sky with a distant expression.

“Show me,” Rhea tells her.

Edelgard remains staring at the sky for just a little longer, unmoving.

“ _Now,_ ” Rhea demands with a growl.

Begrudgingly Edelgard scrambles up to a sitting position. “I wasn’t there to witness it myself, but I got detailed reports of what transpired… I think you’ll want to see this. It’s right before Byleth disappears.”

Whatever it is, it piques Rhea’s curiosity, who watches intently as Edelgard’s fingers deftly tap and swipe across the mirror, going back in time all the way to when she was still a teenager.

When the memory starts Rhea sees Byleth, a serious expression on her face as she looks down from a cliff surrounding Garreg Mach, silently taking in the sight of endless troupes of Empire soldiers marching for the Monastery.

“This is when I first lied siege on Garreg Mach,” Edelgard explains, her voice soft and perhaps awkward in her guilt. “I didn’t see Byleth at all then… I think I wanted to avoid a confrontation with her, I wasn’t ready.” She fumbles with a lock of her hair as she turns away from the screen. “So I might not have been there to see what truly happened, but she was, and I think she disappeared because she tried to help you.”

Rhea nods, though she finds the thought unlikely. She always assumed Byleth, still without her Mother’s memories and identity, simply sided with her out of her loyalty to the Monastery, her job and her students, and not yet because she personally cared for Rhea.

Still, when the memory starts, she feels a strange sort of anticipation, of wanting something.

_Byleth’s expression turns concerned and determined. With practiced ease she reaches for her sword, clearly planning to join the fray unfolding below her and protect Garreg Mach._

_But before she can unsheathe the sword a hand on her shoulder pauses her and with a sound of surprise she turns around only to find Rhea, who walks past her without saying a word._

_She too, gazes at the endless stream of soldiers coming to fight Rhea’s own, to fight Rhea herself, before turning around to look at Byleth with a gentle smile._

_“Everybody here, young and old, is in your hands.”_

_Byleth doesn’t seem to know what to make of this, staring at the Archbishop for a moment longer until she averts her gaze with a conflicted expression marring her face._

_With a sound of protest she lets go of her sword and now focuses her full attention on Rhea._

Rhea herself wonders too what this mirror version is planning. Putting the fate of the people in Byleth’s hands? Did this version of her truly grow to trust this woman so quickly? And more importantly, if she is burdening Byleth with what has been her duty for so long, then where is she herself going?

_Rhea seems happy, even comforted by Byleth’s seriousness and chuckles softly, the noise sounding as if she’s silently confirming something to herself she already thought, and with that she turns back around._

_Byleth waits for a few seconds before nodding to herself and making her retreat, she has elsewhere to be right now. Yet she stops in her tracks when she hears the voice of the Archbishop speaking to herself and remains standing still to hear what it is she’s saying._

_“No. I will not allow another Red Canyon tragedy to happen here.”_

_Byleth looks surprised but not confused, yet a moment later she hears the swelling sound of rapidly growing magic, and startled by the sound, she turns around to look at Rhea, who is currently being enveloped in a bright green light._

_The transformation doesn’t take long, and Byleth looks at it with her mouth slightly agape._

_Within seconds Rhea’s body is no longer that of a woman, but one of a gigantic dragon who wastes no time taking to the sky as she too plans to fight._

_Byleth looks at the form growing smaller in the distance and a small smile forms on her lips. She quickly shakes it of as she dashes down spirals of staircases, determined to help the students and soldiers fighting below her._

Rhea can’t believe it. She just watched herself reveal her biggest secret –her biggest _weakness-_ as if it was nothing. A secret she kept for over a thousand years. To prevent another tragedy… was it truly worth it to give up everything she had built up, the Church, her role as Archbishop, likely the academy, just to win this battle?

Then again the way she had heard herself speak… it had sounded more like a declaration, a statement of something dear to her. It was personal.

The scene continues and Rhea watches Byleth join the fight. Although she’s not doing much fighting and instead is ushering students back to safety, protecting them as a teacher, and perhaps also as a mercenary would.

_She’s deeply focused on getting as many students out of her as possible, and fast too, yet the inhuman roar she hears coming from the near distance jolts her from what she was doing and her head turns to seek the source of the sound._

_Byleth can only watch, awestruck and perhaps even mesmerized as Rhea in her draconic form lands in the middle of the invading soldiers and lays waste to them and everything around them. With ease she tramples them, uses condensed beams of magic to evaporate them. Byleth can’t make out the finer details, but she can most definitely tell the sheer power radiating from Rhea._

_The soldiers quickly decide that dying like ants isn’t for them and they scurry to make their retreat, yet while they do so Crest Beasts rush past them. They come with many, large and powerful looking._

_Rhea counters them with ease, blocking their attacks with her wings and claws, swooping them back with harsh blows._

_But they keep coming, and even more come running from the distance, and in in a moment of weakness she is jumped by three of them at once, which overwhelm her with their bites and slashes, causing her gigantic form to lose balance and crash to the ground, struggling to get them off until they jam her into the wall._

She’s losing. Rhea shivers at the sight, yet she can’t stop watching the horrific scene unfold. Is this what Edelgard meant? How she was captured? Overwhelmed and injured by piles of monstrous beasts until she had no strength left to keep her form, or even fight in human form.

But no, it’s not over yet, as she forgot an important detail. She’s watching this from _Byleth’s_ perspective. And while they don’t see things through her eyes, they can only see thing her eyes _can_ see, meaning…

_With her sword drawn and an angry scowl on her face Byleth rushes to Rhea’s aid. In one smooth movement she turns the sword into its whip form and with precision she slashes it forward, crushing the head of one of the beasts attacking Rhea. It’s enough for Rhea to find the strength to push the thing off her, and with a growl it falls into the depths below._

_She finds her anger back and makes short work in getting the other two beasts off her as well. They try to scramble back up to their feet yet Rhea crushes them in an instant._

_Byleth is watching from a distance, so she’s safe from the falling debris and Rhea’s wild movements, yet once Rhea is done she closes the distance between Byleth and herself._

_They stare at one another, both not moving a muscle._

Rhea wonders if her other self is afraid that Byleth will hate her now, once she has seen her true form and what she is capable of doing with it.

_Byleth keeps staring at the dragon in front of her, a determined look on her face and clearly not planning to leave._

_“Why did you come?” Rhea’s draconic form screeches, yet there is a plea in even the distorted sound of her voice. She shouldn’t have come._

_An odd look crosses Byleth’s features, almost as if she’s inwardly making up her mind about something and opens her mouth to speak, yet her words die in her throat as she gasps and turns around._

_Her eyes fall on Solon and all at once she’s noting but rage and fear. Solon only laughs as he gives her no time to prepare and hits her squarely in the chest with a blast of dark magic. It slams her backwards, past Rhea, who tries to reach for her but is intercepted by more Crest Beasts, and Byleth screams, first in pain, and then in fear as she finds herself on the edge of the cliff, which is crumbling beneath her._

_A moment later she’s falling and she screams even more, yet her eyes remain trained on the sight above her, that of Rhea growling, screaming in anger an agony as once again Crest Beasts lunge at her._

Rhea remains watching in silence as the memory fades to black, unsure of what to make of all of this, or what she is feeling.

Why did Byleth come, indeed?

“She really cared about you,” Edelgard says quietly as she moves to pause the memory.

“What makes you say that?” Rhea doesn’t like how hoarse her voice sounds, it gives her a hint of what she’s feeling, and she likes that even less

“Because she came for you. _You,_ specifically. It wasn’t a strategic move at all, yet she came to your aid.”

“Perhaps she simply thought that I was necessary in the war to come?”

“No, I don’t think Byleth thinks like that.” Edelgard sighs before turning her head to meet Rhea’s eyes. “I can’t say I personally got to know Byleth as much as I wanted to but what little time I spend with her in peace, along with what I saw in your timeline made me realize that one of Byleth’s strongest traits is her loyalty, but unlike the both of us she doesn’t care much for higher causes, which is perhaps fitting for a mercenary, former or not.”

She smiles sadly. “Instead Byleth’s loyalties lie with people, those she cares for and believes in, and with how she acted in that memory, her loyalty definitely lay with you. She wasn’t protecting Garreg Mach, she was protecting _you._ And that is what she wanted, to follow you.”

Rhea stares back at the girl, vaguely upset she has the nerve to look sad after what she just saw happen, all orchestrated in Edelgard’s name.

“I want to be angry with you,” she says hollowly. “I really do. Not just for imprisoning me but also for resorting to such vile methods as using Crest Beasts.” She sighs and despite how Edelgard looks tense and as if she’s expecting her anger Rhea doesn’t have the strength to summon her rage. “But I just can’t find it in myself to care about that right now.”

Edelgard’s body relaxes a little but her eyes remain hard. “Remember that anger, because I truly deserve it.”

All Rhea can respond with is raising her eyebrows at the girl, very much not in the mood for her ominous self-pity.

“I meant it when I said that the path I took was dark,” Edelgard admits tentatively. “Much darker even, now that I’ve seen what kind of person I could have been had things gone differently.”

Rhea feels a pang of hurt for the younger woman, yet refuses to act on it as she is firmly of the opinion Edelgard doesn’t deserve any lenience, least of all from her of all people.

“You chose your own path, girl. Just like how I chose mine in your timeline. I too had things I wanted to say to Byleth yet never found the courage, so spare me having to waste energy on having you spill your heart out in my presence.”

To Rhea’s surprise Edelgard laughs. Quietly so and with a small sad smile gracing her lips.

“You are right. It seems remaining pragmatic even in the afterlife is the way to get through all of this.” The hardness in her eyes is gone and she seems almost at ease when she raises her arms above her head and arches her back in a lazy stretch. “And here I thought that once I would die I could finally give in to my feelings and drown myself in them.” With a laugh she shakes her head. “But no such luck it seems.”

“No rest for the wicked, hmm?” Rhea hums.

“Yes,” Edelgard says as she gazes at the sky. “That’s us then, the wicked.”

She lets herself admire the sky for only a short moment longer before turning her head to face Rhea. “What was it that you never got to tell her?” she asks curiously, yet not insistent.

Rhea is already halfway through conjuring up the words in her mind to tell Edelgard when she realizes how exposing that would be.

Still, the eyes of the girl, which are staring at her so curious yet patient, hold no spite or malice in them, as if she only genuinely wants to know what Rhea never got to tell Byleth.

And well, Rhea supposes it’s only fair to share, since she got to watch Edelgard spill her heart out several times to Byleth.

“It was when her hair changed,” Rhea begins carefully. “I so desperately wanted to reveal the truth to her, what she was… or what she could become at least,” she adds with a hint of bitterness. “It quickly became clear to me that despite her hair and eye colors now matching that of the Goddess, Byleth still did not possess any of her memories, and although she had certainly become more powerful, I couldn’t tell if those could be ascribed to my Mother.”

She realizes she’s fumbling with the hem of her tunic, something she considers beneath her as she wants to be in control of her body, along with all its limbs and fingers, at all times, so she stops and instead neatly smoothens out the fabric, denying herself the nerves she feels in her stomach. It makes no sense to feel them.

“I wanted to tell her how happy I was that she seemed to be getting closer to becoming the Goddess… but when I lied eyes upon her I felt too many emotions to do so, I’m sure she would have found my way of expressing my fondness intimidating.” She chuckles awkwardly. “Even I underestimated what the effects of seeing a glimpse of proof that the Goddess was returning would do to me.”

“You must have been ecstatic to see her like that,” Edelgard muses. “Did you tell her what it signified? Or what it meant to you?”

All at once it becomes apparent to her that the odd nerves she was feeling are stemming from guilt. “I couldn’t do it,” she states, her voice devoid of emotion. “I wanted to tell her how deeply I wished to deepen the bonds between us, as we both possessed souls with a connection to the Goddess, and how much that meant to me. Because our bond was unbreakable and our fates intertwined.”

“But that was a lie, wasn’t it?” Edelgard guesses softly. “Or rather, you would bend your words in such a way that Byleth would believe you cared about her, and that you wanted to get closer to her, while all you meant with ‘deepening your bonds’ was turning her more and more into the Goddess you thought she was turning into.”

Rhea nods once before lowering her gaze to the ground. “I have done many dark things throughout my long life, and with Byleth I truly thought I was doing the right thing. Fodlan _needed_ the return of the Goddess more than anything …But now that I’ve seen her lose the power and soul of the Goddess in your memories while she still remained her own person I can’t help but wonder if making Byleth the vessel for the Goddess is perhaps the darkest thing I have ever done.”

Edelgard is silent for some time and Rhea starts growing worried the girl is now too disgusted by her actions to even talk to her.

“I suppose I’ll save my anger as well, then,” comes the almost lighthearted voice from Edelgard, who looks at her with a watery smile when Rhea dares looking up to meet her gaze. “It’s all such a mess,” Edelgard says frustratingly. “Everything is. It’s just too much to wrap my mind around and I can’t settle on what to feel or think, so let’s just see it through to the end and then decide how we feel, alright?”

“You are unnaturally calm considering the circumstances,” Rhea notices.

Another wry laugh. “Calm? No, not at all. Throughout the years I’ve simply learned to put a door between what I’m feeling and the need to express it. As I said, remaining pragmatic has its perks. I can let most emotions slip past me and not keep dwelling on them, other I save for later.”

Something dark flickers through her eyes and she looks in pain for only a moment. “I don’t want anyone to see my true feelings. They don’t have that right, to know that I am human. I couldn’t… no I _cannot_ let my control over my emotions slip from me. I decide where, when and how I express them and no one else.”

There is a finality in her voice that makes Rhea feel as if Edelgard has hold on to this belief of hers for many years, starting from the age of a child, one far too young to be able to comprehend and shoulder the burdens put on her.

She wants to ask, as she has an idea where this all started. Those mysterious disappearances of Edelgard along with her siblings, with only her suddenly resurfacing after nearly a year, with white hair and as an only child.

But Rhea remembers how Edelgard reacted to her mentioning her scars, which she now suspects are related to Edelgard’s yearlong disappearance, and so she refrains from asking. For now at least, as they have more pressing, and emotionally draining, things to go through first.

“I’m ready to continue,” Edelgard states and while her voice is neutral –which Rhea knows is done deliberately so- her body is still tense.

“Tell me when you need a break alright?” Rhea tells Edelgard once more. “If you are so intent on not showing your emotions you’ll have to tell me what you’re feeling,” she adds.

“Won’t be necessary.” Is the stoic response she gets. “…But thank you for the offer.”

Edelgard taps on the mirror a few times and slides to far past the moment of her and Byleth in the Goddess tower. “Uh, I was thinking I would just skip to the scene where I die,” she tells Rhea sheepishly. “She doesn’t see you or me up until that moment and that whole year is more or less her, my former allies and yours slowly advancing and breaking through my ranks.”

She shrugs but it looks awfully strained. “Unless you feel like watching that, I mean. Perhaps it’s satisfying for you.”

“It definitely would be,” Rhea agrees, looking slightly pleased when she imagines it. “But even if we just watch the important battles… we’d be here for quite some time. Let’s prioritize the moments we interact with her for now and take a closer look later, once we have a grasp of how everything transpires.”

Edelgard nods and Rhea catches the hint of relief on her face.

She quickly grows tense again once she finds the moment she was looking for. They find Byleth walking up the stairs to the throne room, telling the others to stay back, where they are slowly but surely winning the fight.

_In a moment that is unusual for a trained mercenary, Byleth hesitates before opening the heavy doors. But only for a moment. She inhales and with a determined nod she pushes the doors open._

_Her eyes fall on Edelgard, not sitting but leaning back against the armrest of her throne. Still she looks majestic, regal and almost as if she has everything under control, as if she’s winning. Even the expression on her face is stoic._

_Her façade cracks and her true feelings surface when she stands up and moves closer to Byleth. There is fear in her eyes, which dart nervously from her enemy to all corners of the large throne room, instinctively looking for a way out, a way to survive. Like a cornered animal._

_“Professor… I suppose you think you can defeat me, is that right?” she scoffs almost nonchalantly. Another mask to hide behind, as her eyes and the rigid movements of her steps as she makes her way down the long stairs reveal how tense she is underneath._

_She shakes her head and her stoic expression slips from her face. “I will never give up. Even if my arms and legs failed me I would still find a way to move forward.”_

_The Emperor sounds determined, but not convinced in her own words, or perhaps she believes in her determination to try, but not in her ability to succeed._

_Her entire composed demeanor falters as a flare of anger overcomes her. “I will smash that false Goddess and her minion into the ground! I will fight to free this world from her vile grasp!” she spats with age old fury in her eyes, rage that has been boiling and building inside her for so many years, and which she finally lets herself express._

Rhea all but smashes her hand against the mirror to pause the memory.

“ _Minion?!”_ she sneers. “Did you just call me a minion?” she demands from Edelgard.

The younger woman cowers a little. “Well not ‘just’, quite some time has passed since I said that,” she tries salvaging herself with, yet even she thinks her attempt is in vain. “Sorry?” she says awkwardly. “I would argue it was the heat of the moment, as I felt quite certain I was close to meeting my end, but I would be lying if I hadn’t thought of you in that way before,” she admits and shrinks away slightly.

Rhea growls in anger and once again has to take a moment to forcibly calm herself. “Minion,” she repeats out loud again, more to herself than to Edelgard. “Not once have I been insulted in such a manner,” she glowers before snapping her head at Edelgard. “And the _false Goddess?_ False? What rock did you bash your head on to deny the existence of the Goddess?” she asks the girl with appalled disbelief.

“I wasn’t denying her existence, I was denying her claim of the title of Goddess,” Edelgard retorts angrily.

“Ah, then pray tell,” Rhea says coldly. “What did you think my Mother was, if not a Goddess?”

“An inhuman creature masquerading around as some sort of all mighty being to bless Fodlan, while all she did was control humanity and ruin everything, just like you!” Edelgard exclaims with anger, for once not bothering to –or unable to- keep her feelings behind her meticulously constructed doors.

It vaguely occurs to Rhea that Edelgard getting so emotional must mean that her feelings on the matter must run incredibly deep, but she can’t bother to care about that now because so do her _own._

Without another thought she lunges at Edelgard, who saw it coming and scampers backwards.

She’s halfway into making it to her feet and has reached the hill when Rhea manages to grasp the back of her tunic, along with a fistful of her hair, and roughly yanks her downwards.

It works, and with a shriek Edelgard lands on her stomach, her arms tugged awkwardly underneath her. It’s a very unfavorable position if you have a very angry battle-hardened woman about to rain hell on you and so on instinct she rolls over onto her back, so she can at least use her arms and legs to keep Rhea at bay.

She manages to keep that up for a little while, kicking and flailing while Rhea looks for an opening. She finds one when she manages to grab both of Edelgard’s legs in midair and forcefully dragging them apart and then down, after which she jumps atop the screaming girl.

In one quick movement she pins Edelgard’s arms above her and uses her knees to keep Edelgard’s legs under control.

And promptly realizes she has no clue what to do now.

She can’t kill Edelgard. Or well, she’s not sure just _how_ invincible the two of them are but she doesn’t have the means to try the usual effective methods such as decapitation. Sure, she could try strangling the girl, but with how fast their bodies recover from injuries… Heaven knows how long that might take. Awkwardly long, certainly longer than Rhea’s empathy could withstand, no matter how filled with rage she is with Edelgard at this point.

Besides, even with the clouded state her mind is in something in the back of her head tells her that killing the person you are stuck together with in purgatory as punishment and in order to repair the timeline with is not helpful to that cause. Besides, in all likelihood Edelgard will just be dropped back onto this odd world within minutes if Rhea manages to kill her.

Her confusion at not knowing what to do knocks some of the anger out of her and she feels herself deflate.

Her eyes meet Edelgard’s, who also seems to be feeling rather awkward and at a loss of what to do. She has stopped struggling and is peering back up at Rhea almost curiously.

“I understand your frustration,” she says softly. “Your anger with me is well deserved. No matter what I see you as, I won’t deny I have mistreated and hurt you terribly, first in your own memories, and now you witness it again in mine.”

To Rhea’s surprise the girl relaxes underneath her. “I know you can’t kill me… but have your vengeance.”

Momentarily Rhea falters. “You want me to do what? Punch you hard a few times?” she asks incredulously.

Somehow Edelgard manages to shrug, although there is clearly trepidation in her eyes. “If that is what you feel I deserve, then yes. I survived dying, so I I’m sure I’ll live through a few punches,” she adds almost dryly.

Rhea considers it, and the more she considers it the less she wants to do it, and it takes her only a moment to realize why.

“No,” she growls. “I won’t give you that satisfaction. Hurting someone who is asking me to do it won’t satisfy my need for revenge at all.” She narrows her eyes and gives Edelgard a pointed look. “But it would sure make you feel better wouldn’t it, brave little dragon slayer. Getting punched a little without any repercussions would certainly alleviate some of that guilt you’re trying to hide so well,” she drawls.

By the way Edelgard flusters and averts her gaze Rhea can tell she hit her mark. “You’ll have the revenge you deserve,” the younger woman all but whispers. “But perhaps this current situation we are in indeed isn’t very satisfying.”

“Good, then take your pitiful guilt-complex elsewhere,” Rhea tells her, her voice low.

“I would, but I’m kind of trapped,” Edelgard retorts with a hint of mischief. Her eyes meet Rhea’s own again, and there is something in them, something daring. “Tell me, if you didn’t straddle me to fight me, then why are you still on top of me like this?” she asks, sounding exaggeratedly innocent, which her smirk is blatantly betraying.

When Rhea catches the underlying meaning she grunts in anger. “You,” she growls. She releases Edelgard’s wrists and instead grasps her shoulders, lifting her up slightly. “You insolent brat,” she hisses before roughly slamming the girl back onto the dirt, which rewards her with a satisfyingly sounding pained yelp.

Not wanting to give Edelgard any more openings to anger her she rolls of the other woman and ends up lying on her back beside her, their backs and heads leaning against the hill, while their legs gradually bend along with the hill meeting the flat ground at the bottom.

When Edelgard doesn’t move, instead opting to keep lying on her back as she almost lazily stares at the sky above them, Rhea feels that they do really deserve a break, lest she jumps Edelgard again mere minutes into watching more memories.

So she folds her arms behind her back and stares at the sky as well. It’s deeply blue, beautiful really. Yet also a slightly different shade of blue than she’s used to. It’s barely noticeable but still she finds it odd.

With her minds occupied by much simpler things such as the correct hue of the sky Rhea feels herself relax somewhat and an almost comfortable calmness overcomes her. The temperature is just right to make lying here underneath the sun so delightfully pleasant. She can’t remember the last time she had the freedom to sunbathe so tranquilly like this, with no one around.

Well, except for Edelgard that is.

But she was being silent for once, so that posed no problem to her peaceful state of mind.

‘ _Was’_ being the keyword here.

They can’t have been lying there for more than a few minutes when the girl speaks up and promptly ruins everything.

“There is no sun,” she states abruptly.

Rhea moves her head to face the girl, who keeps her eyes trained on the sky. “Huh?”

“Look,” Edelgard says as she points towards the sky. “It’s deep blue everywhere I look, no speck of orange or red on the horizon, so it’s nowhere near dusk or dawn. …But yet there is no sun to be seen, and if it’s the middle of the day we really ought to see it.”

Rhea now too searches the sky for that familiar yellow orb and after only a short moment has no other option than to conclude Edelgard is right.

There is no sun.

Her brows furrow in confusion. “But I feel the warmth of the sunlight, where is that coming from then?” she asks in discomfort.

Edelgard turns her head and her eyes meet Rhea’s. “I don’t think I want to know,” she says gravely, also clearly uncomfortable by the absence of the sun.

Rhea makes a disgruntled noise and once again looks at the sky, trying not to dwell on it either.

But… no sun.

It irks her.

She tries closing her eyes.

But there is still what is clearly the warmth of sunlight on her skin.

That irks her now too.

And thus so, Edelgard managed to ruin her precious moment of peaceful sunbathing as well.

Evil, _vile_ woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess I needed an extra chapter to get to Rhea's S-support thingy, as Edelgard has two important scenes and Rhea also several important ones in Silver snow, not to mention they have something to compare it with. It's a lot to unpack, and it comes with feelsies for them.


	5. Alone, always.

While Rhea had been busying herself with internally agonizing over the lack of a sun, Edelgard had gone suspiciously quiet beside her, especially as she normally would _not_ shut up.

Curiously Rhea removes the arm she placed over her eyes and peers over to the girl next to her.

…Only to discover she has fallen asleep.

How selfish, saddling Rhea with worrying about how this world isn’t making any sense and then leaving her to deal with it alone in order to take a nap.

She’s halfway into planning how to best give Edelgard a rude awakening when the younger woman’s expression stirs something inside her. She looks so at ease. Harmless even, like someone Rhea would normally want to protect.

When she thinks of the Edelgard in her memories she feels that familiar rush of spite and hate, for everything the girl has said and done. She now even has memories that aren’t her own which are another source of anger towards Edelgard.

But when she looks at the sleeping girl next to her she feels none of that, as if it’s a completely different person. It’s hard to imagine this relaxed and calm woman is the same one that was boasting about how Rhea wasn’t needed in the world any longer, or the one who called her a minion of a false Goddess.

Just what happened to Edelgard for her to reach such conclusions? While she was certainly an emperor hell-bent on gaining as much power as possible, she always seemed to lack the desire and hunger for power Rhea had seen in other rulers. What had been driving Edelgard? What made her so ferocious in her conquest.

Whatever it was, there is no trace if it in the girl who is sleeping soundly beside her. With one arm tucked under her head and her other placed on her stomach she looks like a messy and careless person, rather than a ruthless and pragmatic leader.

For the first time Rhea finds herself wondering what kind of thoughts Edelgard would dwell one once she got into bed for the night. Worries? Mistakes she had made? Plans for the future? Some of that perhaps, but Rhea cannot shake the feeling that whenever Edelgard was alone in bed she was not only accompanied by the dark, but also dark and painful feelings and memories.

The strange desire to move closer and hold Edelgard close overcomes Rhea, and she has already turned over to her side before she realizes what she’s doing. She stills her movements. She hates this young woman so much but finds herself wishing she wouldn’t have to. Yet with all the things that happened between them it’s impossible to simply forgive.

But something in her mind is trying to urge her to hold Edelgard close and spend as long as she could with the two of them comfortable huddled safely against one another, because then perhaps she can let go of that hate.

The thought is preposterous. That’s not at all how forgiveness works, and she’s not sure if she could ever forgive Edelgard. Doing so might mean not doing herself justice.

Still, no matter how long she looks at the sleeping girl, that familiar feeling of hatred doesn’t come to her.

* * *

“Rhea,” she hears coming from close beside her.

She gives herself a few seconds to let her brain catch up and realizes she’s in the process of waking up.

“Rhea, we fell asleep,” comes Edelgard’s voice, now along with a gentle chuckle.

When Rhea opens her eyes she finds that Edelgard has moved onto her side as well, and their faces are only the length of a hand apart.

Edelgard giggles, something Rhea doesn’t know how to feel about. “Look at us,” she laughs quietly. “We fought a war on opposite sides, we even fought one another, but now we are laying here, even napping together, so close to each other, almost as if we are comfortable with being so close together. It’s in such contrast with how love we’ve been a danger to one another.” She giggles again and looks up to the sky once more. “My feelings make no sense,” she says with amusement and just a hint of frustration.

Promptly Edelgard turns her head back to face Rhea. “I wish to apologize to you, if you would let me?” she asks Rhea, who did not expect this turn of events at all and can only respond with a feeble, “You may yes,” along with a nod, suddenly deeply curious just what Edelgard will be apologizing for.

Now Edelgard rolls fully onto her back again and wistfully stares at the sky. “I won’t apologize for anything I have said or done in either of our memories,” she starts, her voice gentle yet distant. “As that was truly what I felt at the time, influenced by the stressful situations I was in.” She moves her head to her side to briefly look at Rhea. “The same counts for you, you don’t need to apologize for anything you did in those memories, not even your own… if you even wanted to,” she adds slightly awkwardly.

Because _no,_ Rhea was not planning to apologize for anything. Still, the notion is kind.

“Then what do you want to apologize for?” she can’t help but ask.

“I wished to apologize for having called you and your Mother unhuman creatures who control humanity.” The slightly reddened cheeks and the guilt in her voice betray the shame she feels.

Rhea blinks, not entirely sure how to take this. “But is that not what you see us as?”

Edelgard sighs and remains silent for a little while. “I don’t know. I think there are too many things I don’t know to properly deduce just what you are,” she says quietly. “And no matter what I think you are, or what I desperately needed you to be, that feels irrelevant now that we are here, in a way.”

Unexpectedly, Rhea understands what the other woman means. As the hatred she feels for the Edelgard in both their memoires was absent when she was looking at her sleeping form. Perhaps the pain they inflicted on one another isn’t relevant when they can simply look at it from above, invincible and outside of time.

Still, festering hate and sudden anger are two different things entirely, and if Edelgard thinks that their mutual lack of years of hatred for one another will save her from being punched in the face when she says something foolish or offensive which will anger Rhea sufficiently, she will quickly discover that she’s very wrong about that.

“You know very little, yes,” Rhea tells Edelgard plainly. “But perhaps it’s best to look past that for now and indeed, leave the things we cannot change right now to be irrelevant and focus on getting through the last of these memories.”

Edelgard stretches and with an exaggerated groan she gets up. “Well, not like I could avoid that forever,” she says dismissively, yet doesn’t seem very happy with the prospect of having to watch the rest of the final moments of her life.

Without hesitation she makes her way back to the mirror and sits down in front of it.

“Let’s just get it over with.” Her voice is strained but she seems determined to see this through, regardless of what it will do to her.

Rhea follows her and seconds later she too is sitting next to the mirror, waiting expectantly for Edelgard to resume the memory.

The memory is still frozen, with Edelgard standing defiantly on the lowest steps of the staircase, looking ready to draw her weapon.

The Edelgard next to Rhea looks at it with hard eyes, likely with pain hidden underneath. She takes a deep breath and Rhea notices how shaky it sounds.

Then, after Edelgard nods to herself she taps the mirror with her fingers.

_The Emperor draws her sword at the same time Byleth take on a more defensive stance, her hand on the hilt of her sword._

_For Edelgard no more words need to be said, her mind is fully occupied with the battle that she’s been dreading._

_“Edelgard, please,” Byleth says quietly, perhaps too soft for Edelgard to hear her._

_“No, my teacher,” comes the firmly determined response, solemn and grave. “I told you last time that our paths would never cross again and that the next time we would meet one of us would breathe their last.” She raises her axe and stares Byleth down. “That time is now,” she continues, her voice cold and devoid of any emotion, yet her eyes struggle to hide her feelings. “There is no more path backwards, my teacher.” There is the slightest of quivers in her voice that betrays her genuine feelings hidden underneath her fierce determination to fight and sacrifice everything for the future she is so desperate to reach. A crack in the Emperor’s mask._

_Without another warning she lunges at Byleth, who has to step sideways as she draws her own weapon to avoid being hit by the first blow. This way Edelgard robs her of the ability to speak, to plea for her to stop, to argue with her, and forces her to defend herself and fight._

Rhea wonders if that was what Edelgard was afraid of, that if Edelgard would have let Byleth speak her mind, her resolve would have wavered and the future she spend all her years preparing and fighting for might just be shattered solely because of her feelings for Byleth, as the woman’s words pose a dangerous threat for the Emperor who purposely never let anyone close.

_The moment the battle starts it is fierce and intense, with quick, lethal blows being exchanged. Neither of them is holding back and both are fighting for their lives, and to cause the death of the other._

_They’re nearly on equal skill, while Edelgard is a mighty opponent and an expert with her axe, knowing exactly when she can perform a slow, dangerous slash without leaving herself prone, combined with using her shield to block nearly everything Byleth throws at her, yet Byleth is more nimble, quicker to react and she almost looks as if she’s in her element._

_Almost._

_Her expression, no matter how subtle and muted, is one of grief, of sorrow. Her mind is not completely in the battle. Instead her mind is dwelling on the aftermath of the battle. The sorrow and grief she will feel if she turns out to be the one to slay Edelgard, the way Edelgard will look at her if she is the one succumbing to Edelgard’s axe and breathing her last few breaths._

_Yet while it’s Byleth’s feelings being in disarray, it is Edelgard whose fighting skill suffer from it. Byleth has fought all her life, it’s become an instinct, defending, parrying, looking for openings, she does it without a thought. Perhaps she’s hardly even seeing her opponent as Edelgard right now._

_But even if she’s not seeing Edelgard as the one she’s fighting to the death with, she’s feeling it and it hurts her deep._

_And that hurt is reflected on her face. Each time she prolongs the fight by blocking a long and heavy blow there is a sad, almost pleading smile on her face. Each time it appears she’s gained the upper hand it looks as if she wants to cry, yet she never falters, never hesitates or makes mistakes._

_She’s here to end this, one way or another. Her feelings come second, like they always have. Later, when she has the time and peace to make sense of them she will, no matter if they will cause her so much pain._

_And that’s exactly what Edelgard cannot bear to see. Her usually so stoic and determined expression switches between anger, grief, regret, sadness and even the subtlest of silent pleas._

_The way Byleth is looking at her is making her hesitate, thoughts and feelings she hasn’t allowed herself to dwell on rapidly bubbling to the surface in the heat of the moment. The human inside her, the human who feels and wants and loves, is fighting with the Emperor inside her, who wants to conquer, to kill the one person that is a danger to her, both because of her feelings and because of Byleth’s power._

Briefly, Rhea glances at Edelgard next to her, who sits unmoving, her eyes glued to the mirror. She’s utterly pale and every muscle in her body is tense. Her expression is numb yet there is a nervousness in her eyes that makes her look as if she desperately wishes to avert her eyes, or to run from this altogether. Like a terrified animal, desperate to flee. But she holds herself, and her eyes won’t leave the fight unfolding in the mirror.

Not wanting to distract the both of them or pause the memory, Rhea too focuses on the fight in the mirror again.

_The exchange of blows continues. They both have blood on their clothes now, where the other’s weapon slashed through their clothes and tore open their skin. It hurts and burns but it’s barely enough for them to be affected by it. Edelgard has a deep gash in her side where she presses her hand again whenever she has a short moment of reprieve. Byleth’s upper leg is bleeding profusely and whenever she stands still she subtly balances her weight on her other leg._

_Neither seem to care about their wounds, or even notice them._

_Byleth remains looking remorseful and sorrowful, yet never relents and never hesitates as she keeps fighting with that silent plea in her eyes._

_And in the end that is what defeats Edelgard. For a second, just for a second, she stills as her eyes find Byleth’s –who hasn’t stilled and is lunging at her- and she cannot tear her own wide eyes full of repressed longing away from Byleth quickly enough, perhaps she didn’t want to anymore._

_She screams when Byleth’s sword pierces straight through the side of her abdomen. Not enough to be instantly fatal, although she would certainly bleed to death if left unattended, but enough that it’s clear the battle has been decided._

_Edelgard falls to her knees as her axe clatters to the ground next to her. She unsheathes the sword she carries solely to lean on it, so she can face Byleth -and her end- with dignity._

_For some time she’s breathing heavily, as her body struggles to remain under her control with the blood spilling from her side._

_Still, she forces her breathing back under her control, as much as that is possible._

_“It looks as though,” she gasps in between heavy breaths. “My path… will end here.”_

_Her hand reaches for Amyr, it glows faintly before its light too goes out, as if it’s surrendering alongside its wielder. It causes Edelgard to smile, as if she thinks that this is how it’s meant to be._

_With some effort she manages to raise her head and looks up at Byleth from her kneeling position. “My teacher,” she breathes, and even with how much she struggles to speak, that old way she would say Byleth’s title so fondly is still present in her voice._

_“Claim… your victory,” she manages to get out, gasping shortly afterwards as her entire body trembles. In pain, from exhaustion, from how badly she’s weakened and likely from the deep stress and dread she’s suffering under as well._

_Byleth merely gazes at her, either unable or not daring to speak, but her sorrow is still marring her expression. She closes her eyes, as if she wants to find peace with whatever decision she is about to make._

_“Strike me down,” Edelgard all but pleas Byleth, whose eyes remain closed, “You must!” the trembling Emperor insists with as much fierceness as she can muster in her weakened state._

_Her words cause Byleth to open her eyes with a start and search for those of Edelgard. When their eyes meet Byleth looks sorrowful once more, yet doesn’t move._

_“Even now,” Edelgard rasps as she struggles to keep speaking. “People are…_ killing _each other.” Her voice is breaking and emotion is flooding through the cracks, yet she has made up her mind. Her word is final. “If you do not act now… this conflict,” she rasps on, gasping for air in between her words. “Will go on forever,” she all but coughs out._

_The rapidly weakening Emperor steels herself and forces her remaining strength into her voice. “Your path lies across my grave…” she almost murmurs though her heavy breathing. “It is time for you to find the courage to walk it.”_

_She bows her head, as way to show she surrenders, to pose herself prone and accepting of the final blow and out of respect for the woman in front of her. “If I must fall,” she rasps. “Then let it be by_ your _hands.” Her last words come with a sense of longing underneath, of a yearning to die by the woman she failed to reach out to. It’s an adequate punishment for her, perhaps. Or a reward for the woman she cared for so much yet betrayed so easily when she had to._

_Or perhaps dying at the hands of someone you loved is the first and last thing Emperor Edelgard will beg for, solely because it’s something she desires, that sense of acceptance, of peace that comes with it. That all is right, or will be, somehow._

_Because if the woman you loved –wanted so desperately to love- kills you for your actions, then surely you must have had it wrong all along._

_The only tell that Byleth is feeling_ something _is how she tightens the grip on the handle of her sword unnecessarily hard._

_Something flickers faintly deep inside her eyes._

_Resignation._

_She believes in Edelgard’s words. Believes in Edelgard’s belief that she needs to die for this war to end, and that it is Byleth who has to do it._

_Slowly and with calculated steps Byleth approaches the kneeling Emperor, who remains unmoving and with her head bowed in acceptance of what is to come, she looks almost calm._

_When Byleth is close enough Edelgard does tense, but only when she recognizes the sound of a sword being swung upwards into the air._

_She remains looking at the ground, yet cannot repress a tense shiver. A last attempt from her instincts telling her to fight, to flee, to_ live. _But she refuses to listen to them and remains unmoving._

_Byleth too, doesn’t move with her sword raised above her head, ready to strike, and looks down at her former student determined but with a hollowness in her eyes._

_“I wanted…” Edelgard murmurs almost tenderly, her voice full of muted nostalgia and a yearning for a warmth that has long since left her. “To walk with you…”_

_It happens in a split second, but Byleth’s eyes narrow and in an instant they’re filled with fury, still in her own muted way but definitely there. Her emotions flood into her body and without further hesitation she strikes down hard._

_It’s not a decapitation, which might have been considered a respectful and almost ceremonial death for an Emperor. It’s not a merciful strike either._

_No, it’s brutal and while the damage done to Edelgard’s head is fatal she still lives for a few agonizing seconds. With her brain so violently damaged she has likely lost the ability to think, along with her abilities to sense the world around her._

_But it’s clear she can still feel pain. Out of instinct she tries to scream, but the only sound coming from her throat is a gurgled and wretched sounding groan that ends in a wail as her body accepts its defeat and slumps to the ground, where once her body has fallen, it remains unmoving._

_Then there is nothing but silence._

_Even Byleth’s breathing is barely audible, perhaps as a result of being raised and trained a mercenary, or because she’s too shocked to breathe normally._

_Seconds pass and only when it’s almost been a minute does Byleth stir._

_With an agonizing cry of frustration she harshly throws her sword against the stone floor beside her._

_“Walk with me?” she says coldly, yet with a fire burning inside her. “Why didn’t you?” she continues as her voice cracks. “Why wouldn’t you let me?!” she exclaims with a sob she’s trying but failing to suppress._

_She closes her eyes and furiously rubs them with her hand._

_It doesn’t take her long to get herself back under control. The tears stop only barely after they’ve begun and the anger and hurt in her eyes don’t fade but are pushed back to a dark place deep inside her._

_She takes several deep breaths, each one more controlled and calmer than the one before._

_And then she almost looks as nothing has happened. With one solid movement she kneels to pick up the sword she threw against the ground moments earlier._

_Her eyes fall on the body of Edelgard and something hard comes over them as she gazes at her._

_Quickly she avoids her gaze and raises her sword to look at that instead._

_“Why did it have to come to this?” she murmurs quietly as her eyes remain fixed on the sword. “Why did I have to be gone so long? …Five years, if I hadn’t slept for five years maybe I could have stopped all of this, stopped all this death. …if only I could have been there with her in those years…” She raises the sword even closer to her face and looks at it with a combination of loss and familiarity. “Oh Sothis, why didn’t you wake me sooner?”_

_Byleth says nothing more as she roughly turns away from the sight of Edelgard’s body and walks out of the doors without taking another look back._

Rhea finds herself at a loss of what to say too, with all kinds of thoughts and feelings assaulting her mind. The memory had been painful to watch to say the least. It had felt like a humiliation of so much hurt, pain, mistrust and miscommunication finally reaching its inevitable breaking point.

But the thing which is most prominent in Rhea’s mind is Byleth talking to the Sword of the Creator, and saying her Mother’s name. Speaking to her as if she was there, or had been there at one point.

Had Byleth been speaking to the Goddess? She had called her Sothis, so it must have been a reoccurring thing. Just how and in what way had they met, and what role had her Mother played in Byleth’s life?

Had they truly been two separate individuals sharing one body, or something similar to that? The thought is disturbing to say the least and leaves Rhea riddled with questions.

Finally the almost deafening silence beside her tear her eyes away from the now black mirror, as the memory has faded to black.

With a hasty tap she pauses the memories, which would just pass on into something else otherwise, and takes in the sight of Edelgard.

The girl is sitting quietly and while her posture is rigid she looks so much younger and somehow even smaller than Rhea has ever seen her.

Nothing in her body reveals how she’s feeling beside her eyes.

There are tears. She’s crying but in absolute silence. Without so much as a sob or the heaving of her shoulders tears silently roll down her cheek, pooling at her chin before they add to the dark stain on her tunic.

At some point she realizes Rhea is staring at her and she turns her head to meet her eyes with a tentative look, under which agony and pain is bubbling.

“I hurt her.” She states it so softly yet achingly vulnerably and with a voice full of guilt it stirs something deep in Rhea. “Even when I surrendered and gave her everything I had and everything I fought for… all I did was hurt her.”

Edelgard makes a bewildered and shocked impression on Rhea, making her feel like Edelgard cannot phantom why her deeds hurt Byleth.

“Do you ever think about what others want?” Rhea questions her genuinely and without accusation.

The question comes unexpected to Edelgard who looks at her with sudden confusion. “Of course I did,” she tells Rhea resolutely. “I always did, I had to otherwise I’d be blind-sighted. I had to constantly figure out what others wanted from me, what it was they wanted to gain out of every deal I made, what they needed me to do to advance their own plans, what to give people so they’d remain loyal and how to protect myself from falling for the things others wanted me to do.”

Rhea shakes her head. “That’s not what I meant, girl,” she almost sighs. “What I mean is, did you ever think about what it was that drove the people you interacted with? Your enemies as well as your allies. What they wanted in regards to you.”

She gets another confused look. “Power?” Edelgard tries warily, sounding as if she has learned that such is simply the way the world works. “To win, either as my ally or my enemy. To change the future or protect what future they already had.”

A groan escapes Rhea’s lips, frustrated by Edelgard’s incapacity to see herself as a human instead of an Emperor. “Let me put it another way. Did you ever really think about the things _you_ wanted?”

Now Edelgard seems annoyed, offended even. “Rhea,” she starts, her voice low her eyes narrowed. “I spend more than ten years of my life preparing myself and fighting for what I wanted. I _know_ what it is I wanted, that future I envisioned which I sacrificed everything for.” Her tone irks Rhea, it sounds nearly condescending to her, and still Edelgard is completely missing the point.

“You are not some kind of manifestation of the combined will of all of Adrestria, or even just of those who agreed with your visions of the future,” she tells Edelgard, her voice now equal condescending. “What I’m asking is if you ever really thought about what it was _you_ wanted. For yourself. As Edelgard, and not the Emperor overseeing an Empire while forging a new future through blood and war.”

Edelgard purses her lips. “Of course I’m still human,” she utters stiffly. “And of course I wasn’t free from wanting things, from selfish desires.” She shakes her head dismissively. “But they were irrelevant, arrogant even in the shadow of a much greater cause. I had to focus on ruling and creating that future, I had no time for personal petty wants and repressed them for the greater good.”

Rhea raises her eyebrows at the girl, wondering if she really has to spell it out for her now. “And that,” she says sharp and pointedly, “is precisely why everything you did cumulated in events in the memory we just saw.”

Edelgard breathes in roughly and gives Rhea an almost pained look. “I… I don’t understand. I fought for what I believed in and I accepted my loss. …What did I do wrong?”

“Did it at no point at all ever occur to you that what you and Byleth wanted was the same?” Rhea wonders incredulously.

“She sided with you,” Edelgard all but exclaims, sounding very on edge and frustrated at both Rhea and at her own confusion. “She opposed me, she didn’t want at I wanted at all.” She looks at Rhea warily, coming across as incredibly tense and uncomfortable.

Rhea tilts her head slightly to the side and looks at Edelgard with a gentle sympathy. “She wanted to walk with you too,” she points out softy. “She all but said so herself just now, you just weren’t there to hear it anymore. And I think if you had listened to her, talked to her without swords and weapons raised against one another, you could have learned much earlier, long before it was too late, that she wished to walk by your side all along.”

Edelgard seems to shrink inside herself, shifting her knees to her side and wrapping her arms around her waist as she lets her head hang low. “I… but the war… she wouldn’t have understood…” she prattles as her voice begins to crack. “How could she, it was never a pretty way to try and create a better future, and she wouldn’t have been able to see the whole picture.” A strangled sob comes from the girl yet she’s so lost in her conflicted feelings she doesn’t seem to notice. “It was a dark path, rotten even. I had known that since before I even treaded it, when I was still a child. And I knew it would ruin me too, that I would become rotten on the inside and people might come to see me as the villain. …Although I came to learn I grossly underestimate just how much it would ruin me.” Another sob and Edelgard chest heaves as she forces her breath under her control. “Byleth could never become like that. Not on her own volition, not if I had asked it from her… it would have been impossible to taint her like that, and if I had succeeded, unforgivable as well.”

“Edelgard,” Rhea says softly to get the other’s attention.

Two eyes reluctantly look up at her. “I understand how serious you took your plight, and how much you sacrificed for it over the years but… not everything in life is about such grand things as fighting for a future.” She notices how Edelgard is trembling and without a thought she crawls closer to her and places her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“All I’m saying is that what you _personally_ wanted from Byleth… it was apparent to me in that memory she wanted that from you as well. Both of you wished to be at each other’s sides, perhaps not as allies in a war, but maybe as something more meaningful to the both of you personally.”

She squeezes Edelgard’s shoulder gently.

“I think Byleth desperately wanted to be there for you, and with you. She wanted to protect you, but failed to reach out to you.”

Edelgard stills completely. Rhea can’t even hear her breath, it’s as if she’s frozen.

The seconds pass, painfully slow, and Rhea cannot count them right to save her life. Her mind is a mess and all she can focus on is Edelgard.

Then something deep inside Edelgard cracks, without warning. A dam that has held all her repressed feelings, her longings, desires and deepest wishes breaks and its contents flood through Edelgard, taking only moments to drown her.

Almost in an instant all of Edelgard is a mess. Tears pool from her eyes again but this time it’s accompanied by crying, agonizing wailing even. She wraps her arms almost painfully tight around herself as she rocks her body back and forth. Her chest is heaving and her sobs are filled with anguish.

Rhea is helpless to do anything but look at the girl falling apart inside. In a flash the sight feels similar to her to of a child who has just learned her whole family died while she was absent.

_Of herself._

Of a being who cannot cope, let alone comprehend, the hurt it is currently feeling as it is swallowed by all of the most painful kinds of feelings at once.

The need to protect, to soothe and to comfort surges through Rhea and she’s powerless to stop herself from closing the distance between them and wrap her arms tightly around Edelgard, pressing the girl’s side against her chest, and her head against her own shoulder.

Edelgard stiffens, yet even being startled at being grabbed so unexpectedly helps her calm somewhat.

“Shhh,” Rhea murmurs against the young woman’s hair. “You can take this, don’t let it swallow you,” she continues as she gently rocks both of their bodies to comfort her.

Edelgard seems to accept Rhea’s embrace and tentatively relaxes into it. Her crying doesn’t subside but the sounds turn more sorrowful and full of regret rather than the unbearable anguish she was feeling moments ago.

“I failed and ruined everything I could have had,” Edelgard sobs, struggling to remain coherent. “I lost e-everything.” Promptly she buries her head in Rhea’s shoulder, who moves her hand to rest on Edelgard’s back to gently stroke along the length of it, determined to stay with the other woman like this until her hurt eases away.

When Edelgard speaks again it’s both muffled into the fabric of Rhea’s clothes and hard to make out from all the sobbing interrupting it, but still the words hit Rhea unexpectedly hard.

“I’m so alone, I’ve always been so _utterly_ alone.”

They are the words Rhea has refused to admit to herself for centuries now.

Almost she begins to cry along as well, already that choked up feeling overwhelms her and her eyes are prickling.

But then she remembers where they are.

And _why_ they are here.

“I know,” she murmurs against the hair of the crying girl. “And in a way so have I.”

Gently she places a hand on Edelgard’s cheek and tilts it away from her shoulder until Edelgard is wearily but curiously peering up into Rhea’s eyes. “But all that we lost is not gone forever, my dear,” Rhea tells her, sounding more tender than she intended to, and discovering she is feeling incredibly tender, nurturing even.

Confusion is marring Edelgard’s tear-stained face.

“We are here to make amends, are we not?” Rhea hums. “We are here to change all that we have lost and to save Byleth from herself… and from us, to find a way to do it all over again and find a future both of us can accept.”

With her eyes still red and tears streaking her cheeks a tentative smile blooms on Edelgard’s lips. “I… I don’t know how… I can’t do it alone,” she struggles to get out as she’s still out of breath and interrupted by the occasional sob. She looks at Rhea apprehensively, fearful even. “Together?” she chokes out in such a small voice Rhea feels that need to _care_ flare up inside her again.

“Together,” she says reassuringly.

She has no idea what she’s getting into, but in this moment there is nothing in the world that could convince her otherwise she isn’t going to drag Edelgard along safely through whatever hellfire they have to fight through and find the peace they both so desperately long for waiting for them on the other side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rhea desperately trying to avoid the inevitable cringe she'll go through with her s-support by forcing me to add all this character development and meaningful interactions between them. Ain't gonna work, lass.
> 
> Rewriting the memories is somewhat hard, as just writing exactly what happened is a bit stale, but I also want to keep it relatively canon. So I just add some observations, subtle cues indicating much deeper feelings. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Perhaps you were worth saving once

Edelgard has put herself back together impressively quick, or rather she put herself behind the mask of controlled calmness she now wore once again. Still Rhea could see the edges of embarrassment through the cracks for having succumbed to her feelings in the way she had.

Either way, Edelgard made short work of stiffly untangling herself from Rhea’s arms and standing up.

“Let’s continue,” she says briskly as she brushes invisible creases from her tunic, of which the fabric is both too light and sturdy to really crease. “Come,” she tells Rhea almost impatiently, who was still sitting down, and without waiting another moment moves to sit in front of the mirror properly again.

The air around her screams _reluctance,_ but Edelgard is determined to proceed anyway. With a sigh, as she’s also not all that willing to continue, Rhea moves to sit beside her.

“Where should we start?” she asks Edelgard reluctantly.

The girl stares hard at the screen. “Well, my part in this memory ends here,” she says and tries to make it sound lighthearted but the way her voice falters makes that not very believable. At once she looks away from Rhea. “We left… instructions in place,” she says, her voice hollow. “In case we failed, so that Byleth and everyone else would be able to find you and somehow take down the Slithers, as it meant that without them using me as a front they would have likely come out of hiding and attack without warning.” She looks up to meet Rhea’s eyes and her cheeks are red, of shame, of admitting weakness.

“We wanted you all to be prepared.”

Rhea’s eyes widen. “That’s… uh…” she trails off.

“Don’t call it kind, or anything positive for that matter. It wasn’t,” Edelgard tells her rigidly. “My most selfish desire was to take them down myself, but I knew I couldn’t… not until I had succeeded in unifying Fodlan, only then could I unify the world to fight against them.” A wry smile plays on her lips, yet her eyes are devoid of life. “Alas, we failed and even in dead I had one last burden left to put on Byleth shoulders.”

She’s quiet for a moment and Rhea is already halfway into trying to come up with a response when Edelgard continues. “But I digress, the things we put in place for Byleth to find and take down the Slithers starts with you. Or rather, where you were kept, so I suppose we could start there…”

The way she awkwardly goes silent and won’t look Rhea in the eye gives her a hint as in what state she will be found. “You’re ashamed to show me how you kept me incarcerated,” Rhea guesses without a shred of empathy.

“Yes.”

“Are you afraid I’ll lose my temper and try to hurt you again?”

To Rhea’s surprise Edelgard laughs. “No. You deserve to, that’s not the issue. But I feel like I deserve it as well and you didn’t seem to approve of that last time.”

“Perhaps I’ll find a better way to get my revenge,” Rhea muses, trying to steer from that uncomfortable topic. “The silent treatment, or something.”

Edelgard shifts her head to look at her and for a moment her eyes are filled with fear and her mouth is already open, ready to vigorously object to Rhea’s suggested form of punishment, before she catches herself. Her expression turns to look caught and with a sad smile she peers down at where her legs are folded underneath her. “I believe that might have the effect you intend,” she murmurs numbly towards the ground. “Loneliness has started to feel… suffocating to me over the years. Or rather it’s my thoughts that threaten to suffocate me.”

She stiffens when Rhea places a hand gently on her shoulder. “I would like to decide my punishment _after_ I’ve seen it all, so don’t start punishing yourself already for me,” she chides Edelgard softly, to which she gets a more genuine and even slightly relieved smile in return.

“Alright,” the girl mutters and summons the courage to look up again, after which she sighs in relief and some of the tension in her body leaves it as she exhales.

With a determined nod she speaks up again. “I’m ready.” Her hand goes to the mirror, where it lingers as Edelgard’s eyes turn to Rhea with a silent question in her eyes.

“Me too,” Rhea says and sighs wearily, yet nods regardless. She’s ready but not… _willingly_ so.

Edelgard fiddles with the mirror’s surface as she tries to find a good start point. “Hubert wrote a letter,” she explains as she rapidly goes to numerous stills of Byleth surrounded by all sorts of faces. “In it he wrote where we kept you and where the Slithers were hiding.” Abruptly she looks up to face Rhea. “You… uh… learned of their existence in your timeline, right?” she asks with tentative hope while her face shows she’s dreading the answer.

Rhea looks at her blankly. “Dear, I have _always_ known of their existence. They have been hiding in the shadows for longer than you can imagine. They were around when I still called myself Seiros.” She feels emotions well up inside her. “They were the one who instigated the slaughter of my entire family, so _yes._ I know of their existence very well.”

Edelgard immediately pales and also very much looks as if she has numerous questions on her mind she doesn’t dare to ask now.

“But if you are asking if I knew the extent of their involvement in your endeavors to take me and the Church down then no.” Rhea narrows her eyes and gives Edelgard an icy glare. “It would explain where you got all those lies about me and everything pertaining to the Goddess from, though. They must have had a good time telling you all those pretty words and watch you chase me with your axe.”

Edelgard seems taken aback and angry at once. “They weren’t _lies,_ ” she hisses. “I saw you turn into a dragon with my own eyes, I personally saw proof that you’ve been propagating lies to protect yourself and control Fodlan.”

“And yet what they _told_ you were lies,” Rhea retorts as she crosses her arms. “They were simply lies _based_ on truths _-_ most of them half-truths as well- all in order to make you firmly believe in the whole puzzle they fabricated personally for you rather than the few pieces of it that were true. They fed you a few crumbs of truth so you’d have your proof and from then on you believed everything they said without a shred of doubt.”

“I’m _not_ that naïve,” Edelgard breathes out angrily.

“But you _were_ that desperate,” Rhea points out to her harshly. “You thought you had no other option than to side with the people you hated most, the people who did unspeakable things to you and so-”

“I _had_ no other choice Rhea,” Edelgard interrupts her in anger, sounding stern but breathlessly so, with her voice full of deeply etched pain she’s struggling to cope with. “All I could to was to follow their orders, to side with them until I amassed enough power and turn against them.”

“Me.”

Edelgard blinks.

Rhea forgets to breathe because she did not at all meant to say that.

…But at once it makes a startling amount of sense.

“You?” Edelgard questions flatly, her eyes wide and her expression uncomfortable and uncertain.

“They slaughtered my family, Edelgard. Not just my Mother but all my brothers and sisters, and do you know what they did with their bodies?” she asks a rapidly paling Edelgard who seems frozen to the ground and only manages a barely noticeable shake of her head. “They dissected them, tore out everything that would be of no use to them, drained them of their magic and then they turned the bones of my family into _weapons._ ”

In the way Edelgard suddenly looks very feeble and increasingly disturbed by the revelation it’s evident she did not know of this. “You mean the heroes’ relics,” she guesses numbly.

“Yes, those relics people who claim to fight for the Church - for _me-_ wield with glee and pride, not knowing what it is I see and _feel_ each time I see them brandish their weapons. The Agarthans, or the Slithers, as you probably know them better, hurt me just as deeply as they did to you,” she tells a pale and frozen Edelgard who looks shocked yet also desperate to learn of the truth, a truth the people she worked with hid from her for all those years.

With a start Rhea realizes that Edelgard trusts her. Trusts that her words are true, more than she trusted the words of her former allies at the very least

It makes the anger fire inside her flicker to something smaller and her desire to be harsh with the trembling girl flickers out entirely. Instead she wants to be lenient, maybe even a little merciful.

“I shall refrain from making it a competition as to which of us they hurt more but I feel like I should point out that the pain they caused me has been festering inside me for over a thousand years now.”

Edelgard nods slowly and hangs her head. “Even I know that those kinds of pain, grief, sorrow and hate against those who wronged you… if they fester for years and years it corrupts and weakens one’s mind.” She stills and sighs wearily before continuing, “It corrupted mine in the end.” Edelgard looks up “So I will take your feelings seriously. Deeply so.” She raises her head to meet Rhea’s eyes and Rhea sees a conflicting look settle on her features, and unwavering doubt which has wormed itself inside Edelgard many years ago.

“Even with all your pain… I still don’t understand why you would have wanted to help me when I first became a student at Garreg Mach.” Edelgard averts her gaze again, her eyes vacantly peering at the ground. It makes her look miserable, pitiful even.

Rhea raises her eyebrows. Her first instinct is to act on the anger she feels rise inside her but then she sees just how miserable and downtrodden the girl truly is.

With a start Rhea realizes why.

She doesn’t believe that Rhea, or anyone in her life anyone but Hubert -who was ordered to be there for her from childhood- would be willing on their own accord to help her or stand by her side.

Edelgard believed in many things. Her own power and pragmatism, the future she imagined. …But Edelgard did not believe in herself, never believed that people would follow her if she didn’t seem powerful, ruthless, made of stone and pragmatic, if she was human, if she had acted as herself.

So Rhea thinks that for now a logical, _rational_ reason as to why she would want to help Edelgard should suffice.

“If a young girl, a new student at my academy would have come to me and confided in me that she too had her family slaughtered by the same people who slaughtered mine and was now being forced by their hand I would have given her shelter, protected her from them and used everything in my power to ensure they’d be forced to retreat underground for a good couple of centuries.”

She peers down at Edelgard, who looks riddled with pain and conflict. “Especially if this girl was born with my Crest and had my Mother’s Crest forced upon her by those vile monsters.”

Edelgard looks up at her with wide eyes full of disbelief and a glint of hope. “I find that hard to believe but…” she mutters uncertainly. “I think that’s perhaps because my uncle and the others indeed endlessly warned me about you, how you were full of lies and that your kindness was false… I don’t know which of my feelings I can trust anymore,” she says, weak and frustrated.

“Then trust my feelings, because when I say that anyone who bears my Crest is dear to me, even if I never form a bond with them. They are some of the last family in this world I have, in a way.”

At that Edelgard perks up. “We’re family?”

Rhea nods. “Not by blood but… ah, actually we are family by blood, but only just precisely that.”

When Edelgard turns to look terribly confused Rhea tries to explain herself further. “I never had any children. What I did was give your ancestor -Wilhelm von Hresvelg and the first Emperor of Adrestia- my blood. He had gotten fatally injured once and giving him my blood would ensure he’d live, much longer than the average life-span of a human too, and it imbued him with great power, all to ensure Adrestia would flourish for centuries to come.”

Without thinking she grabs Edelgard’s wrist and taps the veins there. “No matter how diluted it became throughout the generations, my blood still runs in your veins, the Crest of Seiros is proof of that, and I feel responsible for all who came to live because I gave my blood to Wilhelm.”

Edelgard stares hard at where Rhea is still grabbing her wrist. “Is that… is that why you got so incredibly enraged when I turned on you in the Holy tomb?” she says hoarsely.

Rhea goes over the question in her mind. If she recalls the events of the memory it’s difficult to pinpoint just exactly _why_ she felt things, all she felt was rage and hurt. She focusses on the latter. Hurt… she had felt so deeply and unexpectedly hurt because it had felt like betrayal, betrayal so grave Rhea had considered Edelgard’s right for a trial, her right to live, void all at once.

“Partly yes,” she says carefully. “In hindsight it meant I had misunderstood your behavior for so long. It didn’t go unnoticed to me that you resented the Goddess, the Church and even me. I tried to reach out to you at first. When I first greeted you I tried to sense your opinion of me.”

She shifts her position and puts a finger on her chin. “ _All_ people who first meet me already have an opinion of me you see, from what they’ve heard of me and what they think of the Faith, and I hoped that yours would be positive, I would have enjoyed watching you grow through your years at my monastery and perhaps even retain close ties with you once you’d take the throne and would reign over Adrestia, as I couldn’t fully understand why your father had severed them so one-sidedly without warning nor reason.”

“But in the span of that first short conversation we had my hopes were crushed as it was evident from the way you looked at me alone you had no intentions of warming up to me and already had a firm opinion of me, one which I didn’t want forcibly change.”

Rhea sighs and looks up. “I thought that maybe because of what it was that happened to you that you lost faith in the Goddess, that you felt abandoned or that you wished to grow in life on your own merits and strengths.” She laughs wryly. “I considered that maybe you didn’t want some strange holy woman preach to you and worm her way into your life unwarranted.” 

With a weak smile on her lips she turns her head to Edelgard, who is listening intently yet looks feeble. “So I respected your decision to distance yourself from the Faith… and from me.” She sighs sadly. “I never expected that I had been so wrong all that time. …And when you announced you were instigating a rebellion against the Church it was just… too much.”

Edelgard is silent for a long time.

“…Oh.” Is the first thing she manages to say after a good few long seconds have passed.

Another bout of silence.

“I don’t like it when you say all this,” Edelgard mutters. “It makes you sound so _human._ ” The way she pronounces it, as if the concept is so alien and detestable, hurts Rhea unexpectedly deep enough she once again feels anger rise in her, yet that anger evaporates at once when she hears Edelgard’s next words. “It makes me feel guilt,” she admits softly, shame marring her words. “As if how I saw and treated you wasn’t a human rightfully treating a monster in a way it deserved but… a monster unrightfully hurting a human in a way she didn’t deserve.”

She looks up at Rhea and meets her eyes. They’re exposing so much of what dwells within Edelgard, Rhea sees the aching vulnerability as her emotions are lied bare before her. “So that’s why I didn’t like it that you said it all. It makes me feel tremendously guilty in ways I’m not comfortable with.” Her voice is quiet and numb. “I even feel ashamed.”

With a hollow laugh her eyes look at the sky. “I’m so weak.”

“Both of us have been weak,” Rhea decides. “And now both of us have to be strong and look at a future once more.”

Edelgard looks at her again. “You’re not mad?” she questions. “I feel that there are many things left unsaid, many things you have a right to know and many for which you really ought to yell at me.”

“Later,” Rhea insists. “Later I want to share all each of us is hiding with one another and we’ll deal with the inevitable anger when it comes. But I must insist we at least see the conclusion of this memory so both of us have the full picture. I’m sure we’re missing many important details, but we can go over those later. Let’s first see the last outlines and the conclusion of your timeline. Before that we cannot have proper discussions.” With a grin she adds, “Or loud arguments.”

Edelgard responds with a weak grin of her own. “That will be hell.”

“We’re already somewhere close to hell, so I’m sure we can handle it.”

That evokes a laugh from Edelgard, it’s quiet but melodious and genuine, causing Rhea to feel oddly proud and pleased for having made the girl laugh.

“Come,” she says, squeezing Edelgard’s wrist once more, only to realize she hadn’t even been aware she was still holding it. But neither seemed to have noticed nor minded it. “Let’s get through this last part, I’ve had enough of sitting here.”

Edelgard nods almost happily, her feelings aligning with Rhea’s. She gently tugs her wrist in Rhea’s hand upwards, letting her nonverbally know she needs her hand, to which Rhea is surprised to find she doesn’t want to, yet quickly does so anyway.

With her hand free, Edelgard moves it to tap the mirror again and it doesn’t take long for her to pinpoint the moment Byleth is standing with Seteth and Ferdinand, just as they’re being approached by Flayn.

“Here it is,” Edelgard murmurs with shame in her voice. Her eyes meet Rhea’s. “I’m sorry, it won’t be pretty.”

She takes a deep but short breath to steel herself and activates the memory.

“Professor, _brother! I have a letter. The Imperial general asked me to deliver this to my instructor.” Flayn says with tense excitement, slightly out of breath as she came running._

_“Who is it from?” Seteth responds, suddenly very eager to know. “Hurry up professor. Read it at once.”_

_It’s Ferdinand who recognizes the letter as soon as Byleth opens it, and he does so by the handwriting alone. “It is from…_ Hubert? _Though he has left this world, he is reaching out through that letter…”_

There is a deeper emotion in his voice than Rhea would have expected and without being aware of it she look at Edelgard for answers.

“They were always close,” Edelgard explains. “Hubert’s loyalty lied with me and our plans for the Empire but his affections for Ferdinand was something I was happy he had found for himself…” She stiffens a little. “…No matter how fleeting it was.”

Rhea decides to refrain from inquiring just what kind of ‘affections’ the two shared, or had wanted to once, but finds an unexpected solace to know that the two of them are alive and on the same side when they win the war in her timeline. Perhaps it’s not just Edelgard, herself and Byleth whose affections need to be given space to take shape and bloom but of many other people caught in the war as well.

Hubert’s letter is long and Byleth reads it out loud in a rapid pace yet her articulation doesn’t suffer from it

_If you are reading this letter, that means I have perished. As Her Majesty would never surrender to another, I can only assume she has fallen as well. It greatly pains me to think of this coming to pass..._

_That said, as the survivors, I must ask you to settle certain affairs in our stead. You must destroy the threat that slithers in the dark. I’m sure you must recall Monica and Tomas. Their allies yet live. They hold deep resentment against the Children of the Goddess and the people of the world, and they are biding their time until they can exact revenge. If left to their own devices, it is certain they will eventually bring unimaginable calamity and suffering to the world._

_I have deduced the location of their stronghold, Shambhala. You will find its whereabouts enclosed. There is no question that they are the enemies of everyone in Fodlan. Do not allow yourselves to forget that._

_Lastly… While I cannot say she is in good health, the Archbishop resides in a secret chamber in the Imperial palace. I have shared the location of the entrance to that secret chamber with the person to whom I have entrusted this letter._

_I believe that Her Majesty will be victorious... Even still, I must plan for her defeat as well. If you wish to lead this world, I challenge you to rise to the occasion and surpass my estimation of you. Such is your obligation as the victors… and the only fitting tribute to all that Lady Edelgard has sacrificed._

Beside Rhea she hears the tell-tale sound of Edelgard struggling to refrain from crying and so with one tap Rhea pauses the memory.

“Speak,” she encourages Edelgard, perhaps less patient and gentle than what would have been fitting.

“I never read the letter,” Edelgard chokes out hoarsely, taking deep breaths and clenching her jaw to stop herself from breaking into tears. Even so, a few silent tears roll from her cheek. “He believed in me, to his last breath he believed in me and I _failed,”_ she stutters out. “All that I sacrificed,” she says bitterly, repeating Hubert’s words. “He sacrificed just as much as I did, perhaps even more as he always had a choice. He could have chosen to side against me so he could be with Ferdinand and the others but he never even let me bring up the topic. He always had said he had made his mind up a long time ago, when he was twelve.”

With teary eyes and reddened cheeks Edelgard looks at Rhea and it’s almost as if she’s silently begging her to help Edelgard make sense of all this. “What child of twelve could possibly truly know what it is committing itself to? What sacrifices it would have to make, what war is truly like… and still he did it. He remained by my side unwaveringly, loyal to the end.”

Rhea honesty hasn’t thought much about Edelgard and Hubert’s relationship. The both of them had always seem pragmatic, ruthless and willing to sacrifice anything -including themselves- to achieve their goals. A fitting partner to assist you if you want to forcefully conquer and unify Fodlan but perhaps they had a secretly kept close bond hidden underneath all their goals. “Were you and Hubert friends?” Rhea asks, suddenly wondering just how much the two meant to one another.

Edelgard looks over at her as she exhales slowly, regaining her ability to speak, and nods. “He was my dearest friend, I loved him so deeply.” She scoots closer to Rhea and gives her an awkward glance. “I uh, I need to ground myself, to feel something. Can I maybe touch your hand?” she asks almost nervously, as if rejection would hurt her deeply. The question came unexpected for Rhea but she sees no harm in doing so and holds out her own hand, palm upwards for Edelgard to grab.

Tentatively the girl does, grabbing Rhea’s hand and wrapping her fingers around Rhea’s own in a way that’s just below tight and gives a gentle squeeze. “Thank you,” she mutters with reddened cheeks. “It makes me feel safe enough to keep talking,” she says gratefully. “If you don’t mind that is,” she adds hurriedly.

Rhea smiles at her, hoping to make her feel even more save and encourage her. “I think it’s of crucial importance we understand each other’s history if we want a fighting chance to change things for the better, so speak and share with me what you feel comfortable with,” she says and squeezes Edelgard’s hand, who is looking up at her with a small blush. “Take all the time you need, I can wait until you’re comfortable.”

She feels Edelgard squeeze her hand in return. “I don’t want to wait any longer, I’m ready,” comes the vulnerable response from the girl who is wearing the smallest and most vulnerable smile Rhea has even seen on her.

Edelgard takes a deep, slow breath.

“He was appointed to be my retainer when I was three,” she explains. “He was six. It was supposed to be a bond that would last into adulthood, even if I was never supposed to take the crown and reign alone.”

She laughs at the memories she’s recalling. “I barely have any memories of the first two years he was my vassal, all I remember was feeling such happiness to have someone so mature and wise, in my very young opinion, all to myself. He felt like my personal older brother and when you’re surrounded by ten other siblings there is a lot of love for and from anyone, but no one specifically picks you out as special to them… Or at least not to me,” she adds with a twinge of hurt. “Perhaps I was just too young for my older siblings to really get noticed,” she says with longing in her voice, a longing for something she shall never have again, not even if she and Rhea manage to fix the timeline.

Once again it occurs to Rhea just how much hurt, difficulties and trauma Edelgard has experienced before she even grew to the age of a teenager and she finds herself wondering just how much that still affects the woman sitting next to her.

“But _Hubert,_ ” Edelgard continues with a fond smile, completely unaware of Rhea’s thoughts about her. “In the beginning he also didn’t really know what to do. Retainer? I had adult servants to take care of the needs I had for which I was too young to do of myself.” Edelgard laughs and shakes her head. “The poor boy was only six, he also still needed help from adult servants as he was not yet old enough to be independent. I remember he’d wake up before me just so the adult servants could help him dress properly. And it’s only a foggy memory now, more like short moments and things being said and done, but I remember seeing the adult servants teach him how to boil tea for me, as I liked that so much.”

Her eyes turn bitter. “He burned his fingers so many times… all because of me. I was too young to really understand that he was in pain because of me but in those first two years I managed to deduce he wasn’t with me voluntary.”

“Did his father force him to?” Rhea wonders.

“In hindsight that is almost certainly what happened, he wanted his child to be close to one of the Imperial children… especially as a few years later Marquis Vestra was one of the conspirers to bring House Hresvelg down, he partook in the Insurrection of the Seven when I was eight, turning my father into a mere figurehead -a puppet Emperor really- while the seven other families pulled the ropes from the shadows. Even worse, many years after my hair changed… after I was t-taken underneath Enbarr,” Edelgard stutters, her voice frail, “we learned that Marquis Vestra had been one of the few people directly involved in plotting and executing the kidnapping of me and my siblings so he must have wanted Hubert to swear loyalty to me, perhaps he even hoped we’d form a close bond so his son would still have a position of power if… if I would survive the experiments they were planning to subjugate me to after me and my siblings were taken.”

Edelgard’s eyes look so hollow it pains Rhea to see her like this and on impulse she gently squeezes Edelgard’s hand, brushing the soft skin under her own hand gently with her thumb. “You don’t have to keep talking about this if it’s too painful for you,” she tells the girl, who looks close too crying but far too numb to do so.

Her words, along with Rhea squeezing and slowly stroking Edelgard’s hand, jolts Edelgard out of her thoughts. “No, I can continue. I wanted to tell you about our friendship, but I strayed too far from that topic in my explanation of the circumstances that solidified our friendship.” She shakes her head as if she’s trying to shake the painful thoughts from her mind and smiles watery at Rhea.

“With both of us being too young to really understand the inequality between a princess and her retainer we became quick friends instead. At first he took to me like an older brother, trying to teach me things in his own ways, how to put on my shoes properly, to eat with cutlery, how to behave in front of adults, how to avoid adults whenever it was ‘handy’.” She giggles to herself as she recalls the memories. “After I had a few more years under my belt we became more like equals, in private at least, as Hubert’s father would punish him if he learned his son had not been treating me with the proper etiquette a princess was to be treated with.

Edelgard sighs all of a sudden and averts her gaze. “I loved him so dearly, and those halcyon days together with him are some of my most precious memories… I was ten when I was kidnapped by the Slither’s and Hubert didn’t know of my whereabouts for the nearly full year I was kept there. After… after I was back at the palace things… they changed between us. We cared just as deeply for one another but I… I think he felt guilty for not having been able to protect me, despite a child of his age being wholly unable to shoulder such a burden. Both of just us had been far too weak to stand up against adults, especially those with so much power and influence.”

Edelgard shifts awkwardly and pulls her knees up before looking at Rhea with both fear and shame in her eyes. “And so when I confided in him about my plans for the future, that I was determined to put an end to the system that made it possible for all my siblings to be killed and left me so damaged… I think that his guilt for not having been there for me where he felt he should have been was what drove his fiery passion to commit himself to my cause. We were inseparable after that, but in a much more pragmatic and formal way.”

In shame Edelgard averts her gaze and when she speaks it’s almost a whisper. “Now I can’t help but wonder if I used the way his father forced him to be my retainer, our subsequent close friendship and the undeserved guilt he was shouldering to tie him to me and ensure I always had his undying loyalty.”

“No friendship is truly rational, especially not one under such painful circumstances,” Rhea finds herself trying to comfort Edelgard with. “And in the end he seemed to have no regrets whatsoever in remaining loyal to you until his death.”

“But he didn’t _deserve_ it!” Edelgard exclaims, her voice ragged and uneven.

“Yet it was what he wanted and he had made peace with it,” Rhea counters softly, squeezing Edelgard’s hand again. “Don’t hate yourself over this, not now when it’s over. Instead vow to be there for him as well when we get our second chance.”

Edelgard’s eyes widen and she gets a bemused expression on her face. “Oh… right,” she mutters awkwardly. “I keep forgetting that’s why we’re here.”

“Me too if I’m truly honest. The concept is hard to really wrap my mind around, even for me despite having lived so much longer than you.”

“A second chance…” Edelgard utters wistfully and for a moment her eyes glaze over. “I wonder what that is going to be like, or feel…”

“Me too,” Rhea agrees with a soft nod. The thought is overwhelming. “It’s hard to picture, really. But I guess while we are here we have all the time we need to come up with something,” she shrugs almost nonchalantly.

Edelgard smiles and it’s just a little less vulnerable than before. “That’s an optimistic way to look at it,” she laughs quietly. “Almost makes it sound easy.”

“I would really prefer not to dwell on the details and keep things easy,” Rhea nods. “Or keep them sounding easy, at the very least. My poor mind can’t handle all of this otherwise.”

That evokes a laugh from Edelgard as well. “I’d insult your poor mind, but truthfully I’m only grateful that even you struggle to cope with this bizarre turn of events.”

Rhea narrows her eyes at her in a mocking glare. “Careful now, or I might find ways to insult _your_ poor mind.”

“Hmm,” comes the unimpressed response, it almost sounds like a challenge.

Edelgard exhales slowly and all of a sudden the mood between them –and the mirror- seems much lighter, meaning…

“Shall we get on with it?” Edelgard says, managing to sound only slightly sullen.

“I’ll admit I’ve gotten rather curious about your constant comments how bad it’s going to be for me so I’m almost eager to continue,” Rhea teases her, really wanting to keep the mood light as long as it’s possible. “Almost,” she adds and sighs. Surely this light mood between them will be ruined after what she will bear witness to soon.

With a huff Edelgard untangles her fingers from Rhea’s -giving her a smile as she does so- and reluctantly activates the memory again.

The both of them watch in silence as Byleth and her companions come to life again in the mirror. The contents of the letter seem to give everyone hope and even some of their spirit back, everyone but Byleth that is. She isn’t smiling Rhea realizes, not that she ever was someone who smiled easy but as the others are talking about going after the threat that is Those who Slither in the dark, followed by them prioritizing saving Rhea, Byleth is silent, her expression too neutral for the circumstances and she keeps clutching the letter in her fingers as her eyes quickly dart between her allies and down to read some of the words in the letter over and over again.

_It’s only when Seteth suggests they’d go to the defeated Imperial general and get the locations of Rhea’s whereabouts that something sparks in Byleth’s eyes. She carefully folds the letter and hides it in one of her inner pockets before nodding and following along with the group._

_The general had been instructed by Hubert to give the information should he be captured in the case both he and the Emperor had perished so he divulges the location where they’ve kept Rhea incarcerated without further ado, he almost seems relieved._

_As Byleth, along with Flayn and Byleth prepare to go where Rhea is incarcerated Ferdinand stays, saying something about wishing to be alone so he’ll watch the Imperial soldiers that have been captured. The others nod and Byleth subtly squeezes his shoulder and tries to smile at him, but even Byleth seems to know it looks forced as it’s followed by a guilty, apologetic look before she leaves him be to head for the Archbishop._

_She’s not being held in the dungeons of Enbarr’s palace, it’s_ below _it. Seteth, with Byleth and Flayn on his tail hurries down the catacombs, now open for them as Enbarr, along with Adrestia, has fallen. During their journey they encounter various soldiers and knights on their sides trying to find out just what happened in Enbarr. Several others are looking for survivors of both sides and trying to give them what care they can until they can get them to healers just outside the palace. The process of getting the bodies of the fallen out of the castle has also already begun._

_Finally the small group makes it into the dungeons and with the instructions the general gave them they now know of a special set of stairs in one of the prison cells, behind a wall that’s merely a mirage, completely identical to a real wall until it’s touched._

_Seteth all but rushes towards it and only wastes a moment to test if the wall is indeed fake, which turns out to be true when he puts his hand tentatively against the wall, only for it to turn into dark purple smoke. Once he retracts it the illusion recovers itself in mere seconds and the wall looks unordinary again._

_“Let’s go,” he ushers the others along. “This is where she must be!”_

_Without hesitation and not wasting another moment he briskly walks through the wall, which turns into smoke all around him, until he’s gone a second later._

Rhea feels a surge of affection for her brother, so eager to find her, to be together again and to help her recover from whatever ordeal he’s sure she must have had to endure.

_The others follow suit and a short moment later they all appear on the other side of the wall, standing on a fenced platform high above the ground with a staircase dwindling down against three of the walls until they reach the stone floor._

_When Byleth peers down over the fence she can see Rhea sitting on the floor just underneath the platform. She gasps in surprise and suddenly there is_ life _in her eyes again. “Rhea!” she calls tentatively, alerting everyone in this chamber to her presence, before she all but rushes down the stairs._

_Once she makes it down to the ground level she spurts over to Rhea, who is sitting upright, leaning feebly with both her back against the wall and against side, huddled in a corner in order to keep herself sitting upright and comfortably in the weakened condition she’s in._

Rhea wants to talk, to say things to Edelgard, to ask her questions, no to _demand_ answers to the questions she has but her eyes are glued to the mirror and her mouth remains shut.

_In a few last hurried steps Byleth kneels in front of Rhea._

_“Rhea,” she utters in ragger breaths. “Rhea, please,” she almost begs. “We’re here, you’re save now.”_

_Rhea struggles to meet Byleth’s eyes. “Is… is it really you?” she stutters out weakly. “Is it really over?” she says and her voice cracks._

_“It’s me, Rhea,” Byleth reassures her as she tentatively places both her hands on Rhea’s upper arms, who shivers at the contact despite the welcome increase in stability and warmth._

_Without warning Rhea lets herself fall forwards, with only her own hands desperately grasping Byleth’s lower arms to keep herself from losing balance. Her head she leans against Byleth’s chest, soaking in the warmth and life of another. She doesn’t indulge in this long and lets herself fall back a little, yet still with her head bowed and very close to touching Byleth’s chest._

_“You… You have come to save me…” she utters, her voice high and sounding as if she finds the idea that this is really almost too much to believe yet desperately wishes it_ is _real._

 _“Is this… Is this a dream?” she murmurs, and it’s clear from her posture she wants to be closer to Byleth again, to feel her against herself to proof to herself that all of this is real. “I have longed to see you again…_ all _this time… Is it truly you?”_

_Byleth chokes up and struggles to produce words. Instead she presses her mouth against Rhea’s cranium and murmurs soothing words in comfort._

_They stay like that for a little while longer, with Byleth pulling Rhea a little more against herself, as a substitute for the words she cannot find it in herself to say, and Rhea letting herself fall with delight against Byleth._

_“You’re safe now, Rhea,” Byleth manages to get out of her mouth after some time. “I’m… I’m_ so _sorry I couldn’t be here sooner. This… I should never allowed this to happen,” she chokes out with pain in her voice._

_Rhea peers back and finally looks up as both of their eyes meet. She seems mesmerized by truly seeing Byleth gaze back down at her and on impulse she raises her hand to gently place it against Byleth’s face._

_“I’ve missed you_ so _much,” she says hollowly._

_“I... Rhea, I… me too,” Byleth sputters, suddenly tremendously out of her depth._

“Chummy.” The girl sitting beside Rhea sardonically echoes Rhea’s own earlier comment regarding Edelgard with thinly veiled distaste, which is masking an even more thinly veiled jealousy.

Jealousy? Rhea wonders, but _why?_

Still the memory continues.

_“Ahem,” comes the polite fake cough from Seteth to draw the couple’s attention, who both startle by the sound he makes and clearly had forgotten they weren’t alone._

_With a blush Byleth regains her senses and after some scuffling and with Byleth using her sword to delicately sever the chains around Rhea’s ankles she helps the woman up to her feet._

_“Seteth, Flayn… You are here as well,” Rhea smiles warmly and it’s as if some of her strength is already coming back to her, strength of the mind at least. “Thank you,” she utters with deep gratitude. “For supporting the professor, and for rescuing me._

_“Rhea… I’m overjoyed that you are unharmed. I could not stand losing another of our kind,” Seteth utters and reluctantly and with utmost carefulness embraces his sister, who was lost to him for over five years._

_On her turn Rhea tentatively wraps her arms around Seteth and leans her forehead against his shoulder. “Seteth,” she murmurs with pain in her voice. “Yes… I am reminded of the past… of reuniting in Enbarr…”_

_Her brother tightens his embrace on her. “It is truly nostalgic. I would love nothing more than to lose ourselves in memories of the old days, but…” He grabs his sister’s shoulders and gently creates some distance between the both of them._

_“We have received incredible news, Rhea. Albeit it came from the Empire. But... they have told us the identity of our enemy.” He takes a deep breath and clearly doesn’t want to confront Rhea with this news, not now, preferably not ever. Not ever again._

_“It’s Those who slither in the dark….”_

_He gives his sister no time to react and lets go of her shoulders to look directly at her. “It is time for is to stop hiding the truth about the Goddess, the Progenitor God. The truth about us,” he tells her with an air of finality. “It is time for us to tell the people everything.”_

_“Those who slither in the dark,” Rhea mumbles softly to herself, clearly taken aback by this information and not fully capable of comprehending it._

_She glances at Byleth, whose eyes are trained on the Archbishop with an almost desperate longing in her eyes, a need to ensure her continued safety and perhaps even make her happy again._

_Rhea’s eyes widen at seeing Byleth look so intensely at her yet she holds her silence and bites her lip instead._

_“Please Rhea, tell the professor everything about these vile people. There must be things that only_ you _know,” Seteth asks of her, yet the plea is palpable in his voice._

_Rhea looks at her brother silently and unmoving before nodding softly in agreement. “I understand,” she tells him and turns herself to face Byleth. “Dear child… I will now tell you everything that I know._

Rhea is suddenly deeply afraid of watching herself about to reveal all the secrets she kept over the years, some involving Byleth, some having affected her entire life, some too dark to ever day out loud. Rhea feels panic rise in her stomach at the thought of how Byleth would react, she’s too afraid Byleth will be disgusted by her.

But why? In her own timeline Byleth rebelled against her and that’s where their tentative and budding relationship was promptly shattered. Even now she feels traces of lingering hate. Perhaps it’s because seeing this outcome, one where Byleth stays with her and ­ _likes her_ for who she is, is suddenly deeply important to her. She wants to see if it was possible.

If Byleth, as herself or as the progenitor Goddess would want Rhea in her life.

She once again feels that ancient longing she always carries with her, longing for friends, companions or perhaps even a lover. But despite being surrounded by so many people each day, people who care for her very much, Rhea has felt isolated for centuries now. She longs for… people to talk to, and to smile and laugh with them. To hold them close when feelings become too much.

The other thing that frightens her is that Edelgard sitting right next to her, meaning she’s also about to hear mirror Rhea spill all her carefully contained secrets. She has half a mind to ask Edelgard to leave, but that would be the act of a coward and also counterproductive. They’re here to forge a new future together, meaning Edelgard needs to know the truth.

And so she holds her silence, together with Edelgard, whose eyes are practically glued to the mirror, as the Rhea in the mirror speaks to Byleth about all that she kept in the dark.

It’s terrifying to hear it spoken out loud, yet Rhea holds her grounds as her other version reveals the truth to Byleth. The truth that there is a vast group of people who have slithered in the darkness, threatening the peace of Fodlan since ancient times.

When her mirror-self starts to talk about Nemesis, something in Rhea cracks and out of that crack boils anger fuelled by sorrow and despair.

Not a moment later she feels a hand on hers, flipping it over so Edelgard can intertwine their fingers. “Hold me,” she says without taking her eyes from the screen. “I don’t understand why yet, but it seems this is hard on you.”

When the mirror Rhea is in thought for a moment Edelgard tears her eyes away from the mirror and gives the Rhea next to her a reassuring smile. “Together, remember?” she hums and squeezes their joined hands tenderly.

Rhea nods in gratitude and a second later Edelgard’s eyes are on the mirror again.

Together they watch Rhea’s other self explain the truth about Nemesis’s real deeds, how the story of how he became the King of Liberation who received the Sword of the Creator from the Goddess and became a hero turn into the truth of Nemesis being the leader of a group of bandits, a plague who plundered the lands and -after being pointed into the right direction by the Slither’s- plundered the Holy Tomb and stole the remains of the progenitor Goddess.

_“Then he went to Zanado, already wielding the Sword of the Creator.” The Rhea in the mirror reveals with pain etched deeply in her voice._

That pain Rhea herself holds deep inside herself as well. She feels centuries’ of old pain inside her bubble to the surface, and she thought it wasn’t visible on her features but still Edelgard tightens her grip on Rhea’s hand. _I’m here,_ she reminds Rhea silently.

“Together,” Edelgard says once again with her eyes still focused on watching the truth unfold in the mirror.

Rhea too, reassured she doesn’t have to go through this alone, sighs and watches along with Edelgard.

She hears herself talk about the massacre in Zanado, instigated by Nemesis but ordered by The Slithers’.

This mirror self of her must be stronger Rhea thinks, being able to speak of such pains without breaking. Mirror Rhea speaks of how Nemesis came to Zanado to massacre the people there. The Children of the Progenitor Goddess, and from their corpses he gained even more power, and brought war to Fodlan….

Without announcing it, Edelgard pauses the memory.

“How,” she asks Rhea, her voice fragile. “How did killing the Children of the Goddess give a mere bandit so much power he could bring war to Fodlan?” She looks pale and hurt, curious but also ashamed.

Rhea considers her words, but the best option she has, no matter how painful, is just to come clean.

“Heroes relics,” she starts tentatively. “They are made of dragon bones…. The remains of my many siblings who perished in the war.” Her soft is soft but hoarse as she speaks and she lowers her head in an odd sort of shame by revealing this.

Edelgard is silent for a long time and only when Rhea squeezes her hand does she break through the myriad of thoughts in her head. “My axe…” She mumbles in discomfort. “Amyr, I mean… was it also made from your siblings’ remains?” she asks as she looks deeply terrified.

Rhea shakes her head. “I never got the time to look at it properly but it’s unlikely it was. I dare say it was fabricated on its own by the Slithers’. They have access to technology far beyond what you can imagine.”

“Oh,” comes the curt response but still Edelgard looks vaguely relieved.

“Hmm.”

“This is all really disconcerting to learn,” Edelgard says with a tremble in her voice. “And it makes everything look so bleak… and it’s been like this for centuries as well…”

Rhea breaks into a smile. “It does, doesn’t it? I’m glad you now understand my predicament.”

Edelgard’s eyes widen in shock and her cheeks fluster slightly out of shame. “I’m sorry,” she utters hurriedly. “I didn’t… I mean if all of this is true…and it will be hard to convince me otherwise,” she quickly adds when she catches a cold look settle on Rhea’s features. “It _is_ the truth,” she finally says, determined and genuinely. “Sorry, it’s all new for me… and a lot to take in, I didn’t take your feelings into account, which you’ve had as long as this has been going on.”

A small, grateful smile settles on Rhea’s lips. “It’s nice that you’re trying,” she hums. “And maybe because I’ve carried these pains with me for such a long time I might have developed a numbness of sorts when confronted with parts of the truth. I see the Heroic weapons quite often, you know. Catherine herself wields one of my kin, in the form of a sword in her hand.”

Edelgard looks crestfallen. “I can’t even begin to imagine what that feels like,” she mutters solemnly, her head hung low.

“Don’t, it’s not worth it,” Rhea tells her intently. “Now, shall we continue? Misery loves company, doesn’t it?” she smiles, which Edelgard sees just when she looks up, promptly evoking a small, almost tender smile, from her as well.

“Yes, let’s do that,” she nods and gives Rhea’s hand another squeeze.

When Rhea taps the mirror the memory continues.

It’s even worse than she imagined. Not even she knew that all this time the Slithers’ were utilizing the Imperial army to pull all of Fodlan into war. Briefly she wonders just what role they needed Edelgard to play in that, a puppet Emperor perhaps, just like her father except this one had too much of a will of her own. Rhea can’t help but dwell on Edelgard’s mental state. Scarred as a child by the very people who afterwards insisted they were her allies, who told her for years the Church was what had made it possible for Edelgard to go through all of the horrors she has seen and went through. Her own father too weak to help her. What child had the mental strength to stand up to that? To deter their manipulation and be wholly independent if you even saw your own father break and bend to their will.

Did Edelgard ever have anyone close to her she could truly trust? Aside from Hubert -whom she clearly loved- but they had a deep trust on a professional level and they maintained their distance even on a personal level.

Perhaps that’s why Edelgard was so drawn to Byleth, a calm and collected woman who tried to reach out to Edelgard, who was reliable and nurturing and almost simple in her way of caring for her student. Simple, meaning no hidden agendas, no lies and half-truths to push Edelgard into a direction deemed favorable. Perhaps Edelgard had desperately longed for someone she could trust, and Byleth came to heed her call.

Once Seteth and the little group start talking about heading to Shambhala -without Rhea as she’s far too weak- and defeat the Slither’s in their own stronghold Rhea pauses the memory. “Watching them do that will take several hours at least…. If they succeed,” she adds tentatively. “I’d rather not see Shambhala, do you want to see it?”

Edelgard shakes her head. “No, I’ve been there a few times…” she murmurs and her eyes are suddenly devoid of life. “They didn’t want me to know where it was so I was always blinded and disorientated with spells until I was in a place inside Shambhala I was allowed to see, and what I saw was… enough.”

“Alright,” Rhea says in relief. “I don’t think I have the endurance left to see through it all, perhaps we can just skip to the end for now? See what leads up to how my timeline ends?”

“Edelgard nods. “Yes, this is more emotional turmoil than I’m equipped to deal with.”

Rhea wonders if Edelgard possesses any ‘equipment’ to deal with emotional turmoil whatsoever but keeps her thoughts for herself as Edelgard begins to swipe across the mirror to fast-forward to the parts neither of them want to see.

Skipping ahead to a precise point is difficult, even more so seeing as Edelgard wasn’t alive any longer in this one and Rhea has no memories from this timeline, so they’re going in blind.

As Edelgard swipes, and taps the screen occasionally slows down, revealing glimpses of Byleth and her recruits deep down in Shambhala. It’s a rough fight and Byleth looks tired, weary even. At one point Edelgard swipes along the mirror and sits back a little, where the two of them watch the speed at which the scene unfolds for them goes from incredibly fast to a normal pace in the span of roughly two minutes.

There Rhea catches a close up of Byleth, who is gathering herself after felling four opponents in a short battle

…There is something off about her. Her eyes are hollow and if Rhea had known any better she would think Byleth looks like she really wishes she could cry.

Edelgard is about to fast forward again but Rhea stops her. “Wait, I think there is something wrong with Byleth herself, let it play as it is for a bit.”

Now curious as well Edelgard moves her hand back and looks at what unfolds in the mirror.

_Byleth orders her nervous-looking soldiers to go ahead but stay in the safety of the cold lights illuminating the surreal halls while she momentarily steps aside into a smaller room to look around._

_The room lights up immediately when she enters, startling Byleth who is unused to such a thing. Once she has gotten her bearings her eyes dart around the room. It’s about the size of her former classroom but instead of tables placed in the middle of the room in an orderly fashion, these longer, metallic tables are lined against three walls with various sorts of equipment that each get a worried and confused look from Byleth as she furrows her brows at them, conflicted at what they might be for._

_Her eyes fall on the various papers scattered between the strange devices. Once she picks them up she looks puzzled as her finger slides across the edge of the stark-white perfectly cut paper, not at all like the papers and parchments she was used to, which somehow looked more alive to her._

_Her brows furrow again, this time in irritation as she quickly concludes that whatever is written on them is in a language she has never seen before, making everything unreadable to her._

_Graphs though… she understands those somewhat and her eyes eagerly dart over the papers with various mathematical results on them. Still, the numbers are hard to make out and Byleth quickly decides that trying to draw any sort of correct conclusion from this is more work than it’s worth._

_She walks along the line of tables almost aimlessly, pausing and looking at something that caught her interest with a numb sort of expression for a few moments before moving on._

Byleth’s behavior is not tactical at all, Rhea thinks to herself. Alone in a small room with unknown objects that might be used as weapons against her. If a small squad of the Argethans find her there all they have to do is barricade the door or make her try and fight her way through several handfuls of well-trained soldiers pushing her further back into the room as they pour in.

But Byleth stays, along with the hollowness in her eyes. It’s almost as if she needs to be alone, as if she needs to find herself again, or figure out what she lost to begin with.

_Her eyes find papers full of drawings but even those look off to her, she holds the papers close to her eyes but can’t see any pencil or ink lines, it’s almost as if the detailed, black and white drawings are pressed onto the paper._

Rhea recognizes her behavior and her confusion, Byleth is looking at printed pictures, something Rhea herself hasn’t seen in several centuries. She also recognizes what they are, along with Byleth who has picked up a pile of the papers and looks at the next one.

_Weapons._

Blueprints of them, with details of how they work how the true ones should be easily countered and how the fabricated copies work differently than the one they are based on, Rhea realizes as she quickly reads the various headers with lines going to specific parts of the sword depicted on the paper.

_Byleth gasps when she recognizes the weapon and her hand instinctively clasps over the hilt of the real one hanging safely against her hip._

_“Sothis what did they do to you? Is… is that your magic?” she whispers softly and with widened eyes as her thumb strokes the hilt of the sword almost affectionately._

Rhea has to stifle a gasp and is immediately keenly aware two lilac eyes are piercing into her. She gives Edelgard a helpless look, expressing she doesn’t know what’s going on.

For the second time now she wonders if Byleth can speak with the Goddess, if her Mother is there, answering from the sword or floating nearby, visible to only Byleth. Rhea quickly dismisses the latter option otherwise Byleth’s eyes would have surely been trailing something invisible around the room, and in other moments as well. Not to mention she wouldn’t have reached for the sword in a way that feels like the sword is Byleth’s last remaining connection to the Goddess…

Byleth even speaks to her in a way that sounds as if she misses her, and in a way that oddly sounds like Byleth isn’t expecting a response.

Rhea feels herself grow cold from the inside. What happened? Did she miss her chance? Had Sothis been there with Byleth and had she failed to see it?

A panic rises in Rhea just when she hears a gasp coming from beside her.

“Amyr…” comes the surprised voice. Rhea turns her head to face Edelgard, whose eyes are glued to the mirror once again so Rhea follow suit and once her eyes fall on the scene in the mirror as well she’s indeed greeted with the sight of Amyr.

Or well, a black and white blueprint of it.

_“Amyr,” Byleth murmurs as well and there is a bittersweet kind of affection in her voice as her index finger gingerly strokes along the form of the axe on the paper she’s holding._

Both Rhea and Edelgard are there to see it happen. Byleth cracks in only the way Byleth can.

_A high pitched strangled sound comes from Byleth followed by a deafening silence. There are tears but Byleth isn’t crying. Instead several tears roll down her cheek in silence. Her shoulders aren’t heaving and while her jaw is clenched, a few deep and controlled breaths brings the muscles in Byleth’s jaw back under her control again._

_“Edelgard…” she murmurs. “El, were you right? These people… they have done such horrible things. It goes beyond my comprehension… perhaps even beyond yours as well.” She looks up to the ceiling. “And for many centuries as well… What if… what if you were right when you tried to unify the world because… because that truly was the only way we could have taken these people down?”_

_Her eyes linger on the picture of Amyr for a bit longer until she abruptly puts it down on the table and shoves some others over it. Her expression turns dark and her posture becomes rigid. “No… you might have been right but you did it all_ so _wrong, going after the Church, going after Rhea…” This time when new fresh start to fall from Byleth’s eyes she does make a noise. Quiet and muted sounds of sobbing come from her and she looks a little more frail than usual as she puts her hand over her eyes._

_“What did I do wrong, El?”_

Rhea becomes aware of another source of audible crying right next to her and her eyes quickly fell on Edelgard, who senses Rhea shifting and looks up to meet her.

“She said my name,” the girl cries softy. “She wouldn’t say it when I was alive, she fought me when I was alive and even killed me… so _why_ does she use my name? I told her how much it meant to me…” Her eyes turn wide and hurt is deeply written in her features. “Is she mocking me? Even after I let her kill me… she still hates me enough she’d mo-”

“Edelgard,” Rhea intervenes as she puts a hand on the young woman’s shoulder. “Use your mind. You’re more clever than this,” she chides it but sounds too gentle for her words to be taken as an expression of disappointment.

Edelgard’s wide eyes become riddled with confusion and helplessness. “I don’t… she fought against me and killed me… my name, it cannot be dear to her… right?”

“She is still dear to you despite her having been your enemy in war as well, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Edelgard nods. “But _why_ would Byleth still care… she should hate me,” the girl mumbles, her voice devoid of emotion but still hoarse from clenches muscles in her cheeks and soft cries.

Rhea can’t bear the sight of it. She feels empathy for Edelgard, even the need to comfort her and both of those anger hear. Instead she turns her head back to the mirror, where Byleth seems to be shaking off her momentarily surrender to her sorrows.

“Perhaps Byleth was right,” Rhea says with thin lips and an edge to her voice. “Perhaps deep down you had the right intentions, a virtuous goal which got corrupted by so many factors, one of them being yourself. Perhaps if your life had unfolded differently you wouldn’t deserve to be here right now.” Rhea’s eyes harden as she trains her eyes on Byleth moving around. “Maybe neither of us would be.”

Edelgard, fully under the spell of Rhea’s words has quieted down and follows her gaze to look at the mirror as well, where Byleth is now opening the door and steps into the wide hall to look for the others.

“Perhaps you were worth saving once,” Rhea adds softly and the words hurt to say.

They feel too familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright don't kill me but I missed the s-support... again. I didn't want to rush things and the chapter was already 10K...  
> In my defense! Crimson flower only had The goddess tower, defeating Rhea and the s-support scene, and one of them was a screenshot with a few lines.   
> But this... Edelgard being an edgelord in the Tower, flasback to Byleth getting coma'd, Edelgard dying, Hubert's letter, Rescuing Rhea, Shambhalalalaaaaaaaaaaa. And they now constantly reflect on and compare both timelines as well. oof. I'll admit in my Crimson flower chapter I mostly just let them see the scenes and didn't really add anything. Sorry El.


	7. Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised so I delivered but now the chapter is nearly 14 k oops.  
> Can I beg for comments? I put in a lot of effort.

The both of them silently watch as Byleth makes her way through corridors with lights hanging above her, the glow making Byleth’s skin look sickly pale. Eventually she catches up with the rest and joins them in their slow process of gaining territory inside the enemy’s stronghold.

A part of Rhea doesn’t want to watch the rest unfold, afraid that Byleth might lose her life there and that if the Agarthans aren’t defeated they will run Fodlan into the ground, but she can’t quite muster up the motivation to skip ahead.

In fact, she can’t get herself to do anything. Moving, talking, even glancing in Edelgard’s direction is currently too much for her.

Still, the feeling of dread creeps up on her the deeper Byleth, Seteth and their companions’ voyage into that city of stark pale light. She’s close to suggesting that they simply skip this part, too afraid of the outcome. Seeing the results of the outcome would be bearable, Rhea considers, watching Byleth, herself and everyone she cares for fall in battle in that cursed city of light that just shines so wrongly… that’s something she cannot bear.

But then she watches the group advance further into the grossly illuminated depths, the whole group except for _herself_ that is. A moment later Byleth notices and steps out of the advancing group to join Rhea where she’s standing quietly, doubt, fear but also determination in her eyes.

Rhea wonders what the version of her in the mirror is currently thinking. She hasn’t felt so vulnerable in ages, at least not for others to see. And her other self looks almost fragile as her eyes land on Byleth when she notices her approaching.

_Rhea remains standing there in silence, her head turned away from the group that’s currently walking away from her. Only Byleth noticed and the woman had abruptly turned around to join the Archbishop in solitude._

Why is she even here, Rhea wonders. It feels personal, somehow Out of care? Duty? Maybe out of safety, to protect someone very important to their cause with a lot of worth as well. Rhea can’t put her finger on it. She can’t gauge what this Byleth thinks of her mirror self, nor can she make sense of what that Rhea feels for Byleth. But neither can she herself. In her own timeline Byleth betrayed her when she least expected it, yet another failure in Rhea’s desperate attempts to bring her Mother back, the worst one of all as that Byleth still held the Crest of Flames and had pointed her sword, made of the bones of the Goddess, at the Church and her Child.

_When Rhea barely even acknowledges Byleth closing in on her the former mercenary joins her in silence before speaking up._

_“Is there something on your mind, Lady Rhea?” Her voice is soft, gentle and while there is care and even a hint of affection in it, there is also worry, a hint of mistrust, of fear of being kept in the dark._

_“No,” Rhea shakes her head softly. “It is simply…” Her voice falters for a moment and at last she turns to face Byleth, looking her in the eyes with a grim sort of determination. “We must defeat those who slither in the dark, no matter what happens.” Her voice is calm and composed but it’s also low with a barely audible edge to it, as if Rhea feels some sense of finality._

As Rhea hears her other version speak a shiver runs through her spine. Only at her calmest can she make the most rational and often the most painful decisions, overcoming any emotions which would normally fight inside her to ensure her continued survival and power.

_“But if my conjecture is correct,” she continues, clasping her hands together in prayer as she bows her head slightly. “The one who they will want to kill the most is….” Instead of only half facing Byleth she abruptly turns on her feet and even takes a step closer, suddenly standing so close to Byleth the woman’s eyes widen and if Byleth was less stoic her cheeks would have flustered. “Is you, dear child,” Rhea tells her solemnly._

_Byleth barely has a reaction. Only nodding in understanding before determination takes over her once more. “Why me?” she asks with barely any emotion in it._

With a pang of pain Rhea wonders if having to kill Edelgard didn’t only make Byleth more stoic, the loss of her beloved student at her own hands seems to have made the professor numb inside, as if she’s merely going through the motions now, until she either dies or peace is once again secured in Fodlan.

Then again when Byleth found Rhea in the dungeon Edelgard kept there was a glimmer of life, of happiness, in her eyes.

Suddenly Rhea wishes she herself will survive, solely if it means Byleth still has means to regain will to life, to secure a future for herself that she can be content with.

_“They are aware that you can wield the Sword of the Creator,” Rhea answers Byleth’s question. “Your body houses the same power they once bestowed upon Nemesis.” Rhea looks both determined and solemn, giving her an air of age old sadness clinging to her. “That is why I must protect you, so matter what,” she concludes, and while her voice is still calm and soft there is a subtle hint of urgency in it._

_Rhea bows her head once more and clasps her hands together in front of her chest. “Even if it means that I must die to do so.” It sounds like an apology._

Rhea wonders what is going through the mind of her other self. What happened that her other self can see Byleth as someone worthy enough to care for and protect, someone whose life hold more value to this mirror Rhea than her own. While Rhea herself still feels the sting of betrayal deep down each time she watches Byleth. Had it really hurt so much that she had been left unable to look past anything else and see there was much more to Byleth than meets the eye?

_“I don’t understand,” Byleth mutters, looking uncomfortable and out of her depth._

_Rhea only smiles, albeit it’s another sad smile. “Somewhere in your heart, I believe you do understand. You must at least have your suspicions.”_

_There is a flicker of conflicting emotions in Byleth’s face, and they seem to boil down to a desperate wish to trust Rhea but unable to fully commit because some of the ‘suspicions’ Rhea mentioned are indeed simmering in the back of her mind._

_“There is something I have not yet told you, my child…” Rhea admits softly, guilt heavy in her voice._

Edelgard’s eyes move from the Rhea in the screen to the once beside her, glancing curiously at her, yet as she opens her mouth whatever she wanted to say dies in her throat as the scene in the mirror continues, causing Edelgard to tear her eyes of Rhea and peer at the mirror version of her again.

Rhea and Edelgard quietly watch as Rhea’s mirror counterpart reveals she has kept much more from Byleth, things Rhea had hoped to keep from the woman forever, yet her counterpart now swears to Byleth that one the final battle is over she will reveals all she knows. She watches herself crack, guilt and old pain bleeding through her mask as her counterpart tells Byleth that after the battle she will offer her apologies to her, because she owns Byleth that, since the truth Rhea has kept hidden from her are deeply interwoven with Byleth and the circumstances of her birth and life. It almost sounds like her other self is begging when she tells Byleth she hopes the woman will be able to bear the truth. And again there is that sense of finality in her voice, as if…

“It sounds like that version of you knows certain things that has her convinced there is little chance she will survive the battle,” Edelgard says soberly. “Yet she’s still determined to stay by Byleth’s side… you… she must truly care for Byleth, or maybe holds her in such high esteem she trusts Byleth more than herself.”

Edelgard averts her eyes from the mirror, which was now Byleth and Rhea catching up with the rest as the group was devising a plan. “Do you know what she’s talking about?” Edelgard asks. There is no accusation, judgment or any anger whatsoever in her voice. Her inquiry feels like genuine interest in Rhea’s complex past and situation and so she answers the girl earnestly without a second thought.

“Byleth has my Mother’s Crests stone,” she reveals if mirror Rhea is planning to reveal it soon then Rhea can just share it with Edelgard now, besides they are supposed to be open with each other here in this… bubble of purgatory. “And not only that, as a baby she was stillborn. Her body was perfectly healthy yet there was no life in it, as if it was empty, no heartbeat yet her blood was warm. That was when I implanted my Mothers Crest stone inside her. In the hope that…. That she…”

“That Byleth would grow up to be your Mother,” Edelgard finishes for her.

“Yes,” Rhea admits, feeling unexpectedly ashamed of saying it out loud. “But it didn’t end up working, or I must have done something wrong… missed something,” she wonders out loud. “Byleth didn’t have my Mother’s powers nor her memories. I thought that giving her the sword of the Creator, or her hair turning green and finally sitting on my Mother’s throne would… awaken what I desperately hoped slept dormant inside her but… I still don’t understand.”

Guilt riddles her mind again and her heart hurt. “Perhaps I am even more inadequate than I have always thought,” she says, her voice clipped and uneven.

To her surprise there is still no anger or accusation from Edelgard once she speaks up. “I suppose that makes two of us then,” she says somberly, a flicker of pain in her eyes before she masks it with a sad smile.

Rhea can only nod in gratitude, too choked because of the swirl of emotions attacking her from all directions. That, combined with Byleth currently conversing tactical strategies with the infiltrated group is suddenly too much for her to bear. In an attempt to clear her head she glances up to the sky, wondering if the Agarthans winning is truly the reason for this timeline to end. In her own timeline Byleth lived and Edelgard succeeded in her goal, and while Rhea can’t agree with her motives or methods she can’t deny that the war was over and peace was on the horizon.

So if the world didn’t crumble in her own timeline, what was the trigger for it to end? Or maybe Byleth splitting it in the first place had been the trigger all along.

As her gaze lingers on the sky above her she finally focuses on what she’s seeing.

“Nightfall is beginning to set in,” she states.

Next to her Edelgard’s eyes join hers in staring at the sky, which is beginning to show red hues around the edges of the land. None of that should be possible without a sun, and even with a sun it shouldn’t look like that. But then again this world seems to run on its own rules.

“Maybe it’s trying to tell us to hurry up,” Edelgard says with an air of wonder.

“Shall we just see who comes out victorious?” Rhea asks, finally finding her opening to suggest what she had been wanting to.

Edelgard nods. “Yes, I’d prefer that. Seeing this place is unnerving, even if I’m not really there. Seeing Byleth and my… former classmates there is even worse,” she says with a hint of guilt in her soft voice.

The Emperor’s discomfort is enough of an incentive for Rhea to inch closer to the mirror and place her hand on it.

She can only vaguely see what’s going on. Numerous instances –still moments- of the catacombs of Shambhala flash through the mirror as she drags her hands across it. She doesn’t want to see any of that, so she keeps going and going until suddenly Edelgard presses her hand flat against the mirror, pausing the fast forwarding of events.

“That’s Thales,” she nearly growls out, her face a grimace. “The man who killed my uncle when I was a child and took over his body,” she explains, shaking and out of breath in her haste and intense desire to get this through to Rhea. “This is his true form. It seems to be nearing the end of the battle, look he’s surrounded, by our, _your_ group,” she hastily corrects herself yet Rhea notices the flicker of pain and guilt in her eyes. “Can we see this?” She asks Rhea, hopeful and genuine.

Rhea nods and removes her hand from the mirror, giving Edelgard free reign over it instead. “I suppose I’m curious too. I have to admit that I did not know as much about the Slithers’ as I thought I did,” she says with a guilty smile. “I thought your uncle had willingly sided with him and had gotten great power because of it,” she confesses, “I didn’t know that your uncle had instead been killed and replaced,” she adds more quietly, feeling an odd sort of shame.

Edelgard turns her head to meet Rhea’s eyes. “My uncle …my _real_ uncle was a good man, he was kind and when things started going south he tried to keep me out of the fray. He just… neglected to keep himself out of it as well,” she says with pain lacing her voice before turning back to the screen. “Alright, I’m ready.”

When Rhea answers with a determined, “me too,” Edelgard taps the mirror to let the rest of the scene unfold.

_“So you have shown yourself, Fell StaR. Or should I say… Sothis?” comes the low grating and inhuman voice of Thales._

Both Edelgard and Rhea tense up immediately.

Edelgard because merely seeing and hearing the man that has been manipulating, threatening and intimidating her for so many years now in his true form, that Rhea suspects the girl has lasting trauma because of it, if her anxious reaction is anything to go by.

Rhea herself tenses up in a flare of anger because how _dare_ this man speak her Mother’s name so casually yet along with her anger is a sprinkle of distorted hope that if this man considers Byleth the Goddess then maybe she is…

 _“I will spill_ every _drop of blood in your body to fulfill the longstanding goal of the Agarthans!” Thales growls, exclaiming the last word with vigor as he dashes for Byleth, purple magic swirling angrily around him._

_Instead of dodging Byleth whips the Sword of the Creator open and wraps the tail end of it around Tales, dragging him closer to him with a harsh yank._

_The shock of having his body jolted lessens the strength of the spell somewhat but still Thales manages to go through with it and it hits Byleth with nearly he full brunt._

_She staggers backwards in a wheeze for breath, wobbling slightly on her feet before the fire in her eyes returns._

_“Feel the wrath of the Agarthans!” Thales manages to say before he catches the defiant look in Byleth’s eyes and, too late, that she already swung the extended sword at him again. Shock only briefly manages to find his eyes before the tip of the sword pieces right through his stomach, where Byleth makes the sword twist and coil until blood is spurting out._

_“That was for her,” Byleth exclaims, her voice still not that loud but shrill enough that it’s surprising coming from her._

_She roughly yanks the sword back out from his stomach “For what you did to her as a child, for lying to her and manipulating her. For forcing her on that cursed path and forcing her to fight against those she loved,” she growls in undulated anger, “and after which you abandoned her to die!” she rages on in a breathless voice and it sounds like she’s close to crying._

_Thales stumbles backward, away from her in his dying moments, struggling to remain standing as he do so._

_“So for her!” she repeat but then stills as a thought strikes her. Briefly she glances backwards and locks eyes with Rhea, who had been standing close by, looking ready to intervene if it meant protecting Byleth._

_A small smile tugs on the corners of Byleth’s lips, uncharacteristic on any day but the easy, reassuring and almost relieved look on her face is even more unusual, especially in this moment. Rhea, clearly affected by Byleth’s smile and seemingly confused as to what she did to deserve it smiles back a moment later. With a quick nod Byleth turns around to face her dying enemy again, who is now standing, still refusing to fall to his knees as he glares at her._

_“No,” Byleth corrects herself, her voice now dark and with more anger in it than the stoic mercenary usually let’s bleed into her voice. “Not just for Edelgard, for_ both _of them, you inhuman monster!”_

There is relief in her voice, a strange sort of happiness even, as in the end she did manage to protect someone dear to her, even if it was at the cost of another. Rhea watches her other self look bewildered at hearing Byleth words, with widened eyes and flushed cheeks her gaze is focused entirely on Byleth’s back.

Rhea too struggles to take her eye of Byleth, for the woman somehow experienced loss and grief yet only used it as fuel to remain on the right path and push herself forward.

Beside her she hears the now almost familiar sound of Edelgard crying again. It’s muted and barely audible, more silent tears than actual crying, but it’s enough for Rhea to tear her eyes away from the mirror.

“Sorry,” Edelgard sniffs. “It’s hard to comprehend she still feels that way about me after all I did.” She buries her head in her arms. “Did I truly walk a path they forced me on? I knew they manipulated me at every chance they got but I thought… I thought that at my core I was acting on purely my own convictions… that I had been cautious enough to see through most of their lies.”

Rhea moves to close in on the crying girl, who is now stifling the mournful sounds in her arms.

But before she can do so both of them are abruptly alerted to the mirror again, which hadn’t been paused and the low, harsh voice of Thales draws both their attention.

_“You will never get to enjoy your victory,” he says with more power to his voice than his wounds would suggest he’s capable of, but finally he does drop to his knees as both Byleth and Rhea close in on him._

Rhea and Edelgard, who are merely watching, react nearly as shocked as the two women in the mirror as Thales kneels and places his hands onto a sigil carved into the floor, which at once begins to glow in a bright purple light.

_“It can’t be,” Rhea says, worry creeping into her voice._

_Thales, in his weakened state, looks up and searches specifically for Rhea’s eyes. “For all Agarthans,” he utters in a gravely, low whisper. With his last strength he pours more magic in the already unstable looking purple glow. “Let there be light!” he exclaims, after which his body immediately loses strength._

_None of the four onlookers have a moment more to spare for his pitiful form as high up in the sky something blinks._

_Byleth’s face is one riddled with confusion and even fear, while Rhea matches her in fear but instead of confusion there is a bitter look on her face that simply conveys she_ knows _what is going on._

_Once the first pillars of light begin to crash into Shambhala, breaking through the walls and ceilings Thales’s body is quickly shielded from view as large chunks of debris land around him, and likely on him._

_Byleth pulls Rhea back into the safety of a corner but it doesn’t take long for her to understand it won’t be of any use. More and more of those pillars are appearing the sky._

_For a moment Byleth seems to resign to her fate, looking almost calm as her body loses some of its tension but she’s quickly jolted out from that when next to her Rhea stirs._

_She looks up the sky where the pillars are coming down from and with a determined expression she jumps up, making her way higher over large chunks of stone with so much ease Byleth looks astounded seeing the usually so motionless Archbishop in the possession of the agility and strength needed to pull off such a feat._

_But worry also mares her face, along with frustration at her own inability to follow Rhea._

_She gets another surprise when Rhea makes the final leap past the roof of the building and envelopes herself in a green glow, and moments later her gigantic dragon form emerges from the light._

Rhea gasps in shock. Never once did she think she’d ever show her true form again to humans for any other reason than to destroy them. But now she watches herself soar into the sky not to destroy but to protect. As the mirror shows Byleth’s memories Rhea watches herself in dragon form quickly become smaller, as Byleth looks after her disappearing form. There is worry in her expression but also awe, as if she’s mesmerized by seeing Rhea’s true form again. In a way she looks proud.

Both Edelgard and Rhea watch, in what can only be described as ‘over Byleth’s shoulder’ how the distant sky becomes ablaze with the exploding pillars Rhea is giving it her utmost to stop.

“You have such strength inside you,” Edelgard tells Rhea with a sense of awe, perhaps even respect in the way she speaks “I’ve seen those pillars of light destroy entire villages with one, or two at most… but you just… deflect them? I can’t quite see what you’re doing when you’re so far away from Byleth,” she says with a hint of frustration.

“I am countering them with my own magic, yes. It’s very draining but it’s a form of deflection you could say.” Her voice turns more grim as she sees herself being blasted in the wing. “I might last for a little while longer, but this is not a fight I will win,” she utters with sadness coiling inside her.

“She knows that too,” Rhea says as she gestures into the small shape in the sky expertly neutralizing all the pillars of light.

“Then why?” Edelgard asks her urgently. “If you don’t win all of Fodlan is doomed! They need you.”

Rhea turns to face Edelgard. “Because my dear, she isn’t in it for the win. This is her way of amending to what she did to Byleth, and perhaps to Fodlan. It’s odd… in a way she is the exact copy of me and yet in other ways she reacts so differently than I would have.”

“Then what is she doing?”

“Buying time.” Is all Rhea can think of and focuses on the mirror again. “Draining them all so Byleth can live.

Her draconic self fights hard but ultimately it’s in vain, after struggling to avoid a blow she meets one which explodes right in front of her head, with the yellow radius so wide it envelopes the body whole.

Rhea knows her other form won’t be able to keep her more resilient dragon shape after absorbing such a blow.

And indeed, Shambhala crumbles, the walls caving in as Rhea crashes back into the ruins along with the last remnants of fire from the pillars.

_Byleth had crouched down in a corner, hiding under a long block of broken wall which seemed sturdily enough it hopefully wouldn’t collapse if something else would crumble atop of it._

_She waits until the sounds of the fortress collapsing around her die out and the moment she deems it safe enough she sprints through the debris, and the dust which hasn’t settle yet as well. As she deftly skirts around the more dangerous places, chunks of stone balancing on another underneath it, Byleth comes across the familiar fact of Thales._

_She gives herself a second to ensure she can’t conclude anything other than that he’s dead, the chunks of stone jutting out from him and the large boulder having fractured his entire lower body saying it all, before movies on, not even sparing another glance._

Rhea knows there is a good chance her other self likely had died or is currently dying from injuries, yet Byleth’s search for _her_ with hope in her eyes makes Rhea feverishly wish her counterpart is still alive. Even Edelgard beside her seems to yearn for Byleth’s desperate hope not to be crushed.

_Byleth halts when she spots her, freezing for only a fraction before she rushes over to the unmoving form of Rhea. With utmost delicacy she moves the Archbishop until the woman is lying in her lap, where, after a few moments, she tentatively opens her eyes and despite her weakened state she makes a soft sound of contentment and even manages a smile._

_Byleth returns the smile, utterly relieved in her own muted way, and gently tightens her grip on the woman in her arms. Rhea strains herself to maintain eye contact but after only a few seconds she loses consciousness._

_There are already voices in the distance, people on the Church’s side, their allies to come and rescue them. Still Byleth clings to Rhea, almost cradling her in her lap as she bends her head and shoulders protectively over the unconscious woman._

_“Please stay with me.”_

Both Rhea and Edelgard watch as knights, healers and all kinds of soldiers enter the building and the slow progress of shaping order from chaos begins.

Rhea taps the mirror and because of the way she can see where they are in the timeline she can guess there is about a month and a half left.

“Shall we skip to more relevant matters?” she asks Edelgard.

A nod. “Yes, I want to see if you made it… in that world.”

Her words causes something to tighten in Rhea’s stomach. “Why is that relevant to you?” she says, slightly more sharp than she intended.

“Because in this timeline you made Byleth happy,” Edelgard explains before turning to look embarrassed. “And besides, in my timeline Byleth and I were… together,” she says, the oddity of that reality still not quite having settled in by the Emperor. “It would make sense then that in your timeline it would have her standing by your side. For balance,” Edelgard says with a hint of pain in her voice.

“For balance,” Rhea echoes in a barely audible murmur.

After not seeing much disturbance or peaks in the timeline, they soon decide to move to the end of the month, as something big seems to have happened there, with how the timeline distorts up and down according to the intensity of the the events had in regards to Byleth.

As Rhea moves through hour after hour, day after day, images that don’t speak to her flash by eyes which barely give them a passing glance. Journeying, healing, arriving at back at Garreg Mach and the long and many days after where Byleth and the other victors make attempts to settle and pick up the broken pieces.

The days seem to pass in a blur by both Edelgard and Rhea watching her as well. The former mercenary spends her days helping with reconstruction work, getting soldiers, healers and people of the fate back on track to get the monastery running again, or at least a safe place for those who need safety or healing. Throughout the flurry of days passing Rhea’s vision it occurs to her she hasn’t _seen_ herself in the whole month after the war, as Byleth hasn’t stumbled upon her either. She does catch a few moments where Byleth was looking at Rhea’s bedroom window with a quiet, melancholic sort of longing. Each time Rhea catches Byleth doing so she feels a similar feeling of melancholic longing, along with an odd desire to talk to her.

Nearing the end of the month she wonders if her sudden wish to talk with Byleth again in more… easy and trusting times. She wants to ask Byleth how she’s feeling, to comfort her because even when Byleth isn’t the most expressive in her emotion, Rhea can see the conflict and dulled grief residing within her eyes.

With not much more to go she stops as she sees a large spike of sorts. Of intense activity only minutes ahead in the timeline.

When she taps the mirror again so she and Edelgard can watch the scene to come unfold she’s suddenly paralyzed at the sight of _herself._

Not dressed in the mandatory uniform for an Archbishop, not even the crown. All that she’s wearing is her white underdress. Then there are her _eyes_. Rhea feels nailed to the ground when she sees the sorrow, grief, sheer exhaustion in her other self, making it apparent how severely weakened she truly is. She didn’t at all recover from since Byleth rescued from Enbarr, she had merely cloaked her weakness, and must have gotten even more week after absorbing all those pillars. Even if she’s alive now she might not live much longer.

Byleth too seems to be surprised that Rhea seems to be still in the same state as when she had freed the Archbishop from Enbarr now so many weeks ago.

Seteth and Flayn are there as well and by the way Seteth introduced Byleth to Rhea it’s apparent she’s only here meeting them out in the open because all three wanted it, and if the expression of the Rhea in the mirror –her eyes, full of need of longing, trained on Byleth’s with an intensity that Rhea thinks would make anyone but Byleth fluster- is anything to go by then it is mirror Rhea who wants, _needs_ her there.

It makes Rhea feel anxious but she’s far to enthralled to see what her other self has to reveal.

 _“My sweet child… you have finally come…” she says, solemnly and soft but with deep gratitude. “I am_ so _happy,” she continues and something more vibrant and lively overcomes her._

With a strange pang of loss Rhea wonders what it would be like, to still hold those kind of feelings for Byleth, or rather, to have been able to continue developing their bond. Her love for Byleth died when she raised the Sword of the Creator at the Archbishop. Another failure. It had to be. Love hurts too much when the object of your affections sees you as a monster, something to be killed, so Rhea killed any care she had held for Byleth.

She shakes her head and shrugs off the thoughts in favor of watching the scene at hand.

_“It does my heart well to see you here, safe and sound,” Rhea continues, her eyes still focused on Byleth and even taking a few tentative steps to close some of the distance between them_

_Byleth smiles, small but genuine._

Rhea can’t help but feel anxiety bubble up in her stomach at the sight of her other self.

There is something… _off._ The way how her words waver or trailed off for a moment. She wonders if it’s the body or the mind of her other self that has weakened the most.

_Seteth steps closer and joins the conversation. “Have you made your decision, Professor? Thankfully Rhea has survived her trying ordeal,” he tells Byleth, who only nods briefly before looking at Rhea again with a hint of worry in her eyes. “However… There is no telling how much longer her light will continue to shine,” he finishes with an edge of guilt and pain in his voice._

Edelgard doesn’t miss the accusing glance Rhea throws into her direction.

Rhea doesn’t miss the hint of guilt marring the younger woman’s face.

_Flayn repeats her father’s question, asking if Byleth truly will become the next ruler of Fodlan._

_Byleth looks stoic but there is a hint of hesitation, of dread mingled throughout her as she gazes at the three of them silently._

_She’s not left to flail around, because before she can find her words or make a decision, Rhea speaks instead. “Before I hear your answer, I shall fulfill the promise I made to you,” she murmurs with a fragile warmth in her voice. “You will know the truth about your identity… I will hold nothing back.”_

A part of Rhea want to slam the mirror hard enough it will break out of the sheer fear gripping her heart that Edelgard will now also hear what she kept hidden for so long, the fear Rhea feels for Byleth’s response is only making things worse.

She forcibly calms herself, takes a few slow and deep breaths and reminds herself that both she and Edelgard are here with the _precise_ purpose of mending the broken timeline and therefor it is paramount the both of them see all that Byleth saw and heard so they can attempt to understand Byleth and her feelings better.

Rhea sighs, _‘for Byleth,_ ’ she tells herself silently.

She feels Edelgard fingers tap against her shoulder and when Rhea looks to her she’s met with a frail but reassuring smile, after which the girl lightly squeezes her shoulder and returns her hand, making it dawn on Rhea that Edelgard must be feeling out of her depth as well, in a different way, but still.

If Edelgard is looking at this from the same angle as Rhea, a step into the unknown, rather than mercilessly using this option presented to her to find pieces of Rhea’s heart and shred them to tears, then Rhea can get through this with less pain… and maybe a little more courage.

_“I… C-created you,” Rhea begins, already looking guilty and in pain. “And within you is the Crest Stone of the Progenitor God…” A tremble runs through her, making her momentarily look even more weak before she shakes it off. “I… I hid the Crest Stone within your heart in order to revive her.”_

_“Sweet child…,” she says softly, her voice quiet and marred with guilt as she lowers her head. “I am so sorry,” she whispers in shame._

_Rising her head again she looks at the darkening sky. “I wanted to see her… see my Mother… even if it meant doing that which is forbidden.” Each word sounds as if Rhea wishes she could be crying instead of speaking, but she doesn’t relent, doesn’t give in to her grief, shame, sorrow or guilt._

_“What does it all mean?” comes the uncharacteristically choked up voice from Byleth, who is looking at Rhea with an expression that tells she doesn’t know if she wants or doesn’t want to her the rest. The fear of betrayal, of never having been cared for as she truly was._

Like Edelgard had done to her down in the holy tomb.

 _With a sad, guilty-looking smile Rhea continues, trying to be brave when that has never been her strongest trait, at least in relation to words and feelings. “I thought that I could regain_ all _that I had lost, if only I could revive my Mother…” She continues to explain, each word carefully chosen but also genuine, and each word still drowned in her feelings._

_“And so I tried to bring her back by creating a body, and then burying a Crest Stone within it.”_

Rhea numbly watches her counterpart speak on, about Sitri, though she doesn’t mention her name, and how she’s the twelfth attempt, twelve attempts that left both Rheas with so much heartache and guilt, as they failed to become Rhea’s Mother one after the other.

As her counterpart speaks of Sitri, of how she failed to awaken the progenitor Goddess inside her but how Rhea let her stay at the Monastery where she fell in love with Jeralt, Rhea’s own eyes inconspicuously dart over to Edelgard, whose eyes are wide and nearly glued to the mirror. It’s not hard to imagine the girl is committing every word she hears being said meticulously to memory.

Rhea gets caught looking fairly soon and is met with two lilac irises drilling into her own so intensely it’s hard to look away.

Neither are willing to pause the mirror nor talk so all Edelgard does is raise her eyebrows and makes a silent ‘ _Oh’_ sound before her eyes find the mirror again, which Rhea following suit.

There was no accusation in Edelgard’s eyes, Rhea thinks, and something feels wrong about that.

There _should_ have been accusation in her eyes, for those twelve attempts… she considers those among her greatest sins she has committed.

_“In time, she became pregnant… but she and the child were not able to survive the birth. The child she bore was not breathing, and she herself was in grave danger,” the guilt ridden Archbishop solemnly continues._

Rhea feels that if her counterpart doesn’t start crying soon she herself will do it for her.

Edelgard’s nervous glances at her, with a look that conveys both growing worry and understanding, isn’t helping Rhea’s attempt to keep her eyes dry in the slightest either.

Instead she numbly watches her other self tell Byleth how Sitri had pleaded with her to take the Crest Stone Rhea had imbued her with so that her child might life, after Rhea had hesitated too long when Sitri has asked her if that was an option.

_Byleth’s eyes lose some of their coldness as Rhea reveals more, soften even when she hears how they both wouldn’t have made it if Rhea had done nothing so Rhea had granted her mother her final wish and had been relieved that the child, Byleth had started breathing._

_She even smiles slightly when Rhea tells her that she had once saved Jeralt’s life by giving him her blood, both healing his body and granting him a longer lifespan, meaning she is the child of a mother born of the Goddess’s Crest Stone and a father who carried Rhea’s own blood._

_Her eyes darken again for a moment when Rhea admits that with that combination she had hoped, knew even, that the progenitor Goddess would finally truly awaken in her._

_Something rebellious flickers through her green eyes but it is replaced by sadness, sympathy when Rhea expresses her sorrow for not having been able to revive her Mother, that she had merely gifted it only to disappear once more._

_But when Rhea drops the topic of the Goddess, or rather she_ separates _her Mother from the powers of the Progenitor Goddess and also separates Byleth and the powers Sothis has granted her, Byleth_ smiles _._

_It’s small and barely noticeable, likely not even Byleth is aware of it but she’s smiling._

_Because Rhea sees her as what she is. A human born under abnormal circumstances and imbued with the Goddess’s powers… but just that, just her powers._

_The Goddess isn’t her, not even in Rhea’s eyes._

The realization startles Rhea. Is that all what Byleth wanted, to be seen as herself instead of a proxy or extension of the Goddess? Is that why having to fight Edelgard hurt her so much? Because her student failed to see the human inside her teacher and grew more and more fearful of Byleth the more she began to take after the Goddess Edelgard had set her mind on to take down?

Is that why Byleth raised her sword against Rhea in her own timeline? Because there Edelgard did see past her likelihood to divinity and instead it had been Rhea who had at first only seen her as a vessel for the Goddess and once that proved to have failed, saw Byleth as something even less than human, an experiment that had no right to walk the earth any longer.

In hindsight it makes a painful amount of sense.

Partly thanks to Rhea, Byleth always had very little to call her own, or very little to find meaning in. No hometown to grow up in, no other children to play with in her childhood, always traveling with an ever changing band of mercenaries, all of the contacts Byleth might have made has been fleeting, save for her father at her side. Jeralt who, again thanks to Rhea, never divulged anything about Byleth’s past. Not who her mother was nor her name, not even Byleth’s true age.

Mercenaries weren’t known for their strong opinions or ideals either. They were known for their loyalty, but only to the mission they had taken on. A mercenary who would abandon their mission if the opposition would offer a higher price would quickly run out of business, and possibly lose their lives soon after.

It might be cruel to think, but Byleth grew up with very little that helped her shape her own identity. What to believe in, what to oppose, what to protect or fight for, as all of that is learned by interacting and learning from the people around you, something Rhea also direly lacks in her day to day life, she knows and often pays a high price for it.

Garreg Mach might have been the first place where Byleth had the peace to find out just who she was, just what she cared for.

…Only to learn that she might not be anyone at all, just a vessel for the Goddess, or an amnesiac form of her who would gain back her memories at one point… and erase what little identity Byleth had been desperately clinging to.

To make it worse, while loved and accepted by both her students and the faculty alike, it had been Rhea and Edelgard who had taken interest in her, treated her in a way that made it seen Byleth was special to them, that she held worth and someone they cared for. Rhea especially did that, she admits to herself with guilt. Always showering her with cryptic comments about how she was destined for more.

And then the two of them Byleth trusted had forced her to choose, with one deeply afraid Byleth held a strong connection to what she considered a false goddess, and the other desperately hoping the Goddess would awaken inside her.

But it’s as Edelgard said, Byleth didn’t find much meaning in fighting for a country or ideologies. Byleth fought out of the loyalty she held for those she cared for.

Finally she had found people to believe in and care for, only to have them torn from her and learn they didn’t truly see her for who she is, that they held ulterior motives.

It’s a wonder Byleth even wanted to choose between them at all.

Rhea’s counterpart said that instead of awakening in Byleth the Goddess had instead left her with her power and then left.

Maybe her Mother had wanted Byleth to be free from her, and free to be herself instead.

The two thoughts war inside Rhea. There is still the lingering anger and grief of having seen turn Byleth raise her sword against her, of killing her with her Mother’s Crest Stone inside her. The idea that Byleth had always been herself also didn’t settle well with Rhea, if only because of the guilt for having treated her as such, of welcoming every sign that seemed Sothis did reside in her with open arms and ignoring everything that came from _Byleth._

Without warning she’s jolted out of her thoughts by a disturbing sound.

The most disturbing part of it is that she _recognizes_ it.

Oh no.

Her eyes flicker to Edelgard, who suddenly looks worried as well, before they land on the mirror again.

The green glow is already there and in only a moment her other self’s body is enveloped in a bright green glow. The familiar sound is her own scream, both in agony and the sound of her losing to something bigger.

Both Seteth and Flayn look alarmed and confused, yet she can already tell what is happening to her other self. Seteth is right when he exclaims if Rhea’s Crest is taking over her body.

The raw magic coursing inside her is taking over her mind and body, not unlike a human’s instinct’s kicking in when they’re severely weakened and in emotional turmoil.

Rhea had more than once felt her magic simmer angrily underneath the surface of her skin and sometimes feared that if her physical and mental strength would be taken from her that this would be the result.

She never thought she’d _see_ it happen though.

The glow becomes so large that not only does her human body disappears inside in it completely, by the time she’s transformed within it her body is already high up in the sky.

Rhea feels her heart stop when several soldiers rush over to Seteth and inform him that White Crest beasts have appeared all over Garreg Mach, that the reports say the knights and bishops are changing forms.

“What is happening?” Edelgard says, alarmed and nervously glancing over to Rhea.

“I… I lost my self,” Rhea croaks out. “Or rather, I lost _against_ myself.”

“ _Professor, our situation is dire,” Seteth says, clearly distraught and on edge. “If we do nothing, Fodlan will be destroyed by a rampaging Immaculate One and these ‘children’ of hers,” he explains urgently._

Rhea feels a cold shiver run down her spine at the way her brother pronounces _children._ The disgust of her actions, of sharing her blood and Crest Stones with is palpable in is voice. Was that disgust for what she was doing always there? Had she been this oblivious?

_“There is only one way to stop this. We… we must… Damn it!” Seteth exclaims, feeling powerless and anger. “We have no choice but to kill the Immaculate One… to kill Rhea!”_

His words feel like a harsh slap in her face. How can her brother condemn her to death so easily?

Then again, she can hardly control herself in her true form when she is filled with rage but still has her mind.

Without her mind her power will be unleashed against everything in its wake, much rawer and with no limits as well. It will destroy everything until it will destroy what remains of herself, if she isn’t killed before that.

It’s _her_ who is inadvertently condemning so many others to death right now.

Still it hurts, how distant had she really been from her brother…

_Byleth stares at Seteth with no emotion until something cracks in her and undiluted anger crosses her features. It’s directed at Seteth but also at everything else, even herself._

_Even_ Rhea.

_It’s anger out of grief, out of being rendered powerless to save and being forced to be a weapon once again._

Rhea isn’t sure if the battle is a blur or if she’s just to numb to really comprehend what’s going on.

She hears Byleth bark orders to her students, keeping them close together and letting them slowly pan out as they take down knights of Seiros, bishops and transformed Crest Beasts alike.

The very people who followed her, who _trusted_ her, now turned into mindless pawns whose only order is to utterly destroy.

Rhea hopes they’re mindless at least, it would be a mercy compared to the alternative.

“What is going on? What has gotten into them?” Edelgard asks carefully but with tension in her voice.

“They are linked to me,” Rhea hears herself say, too numb to really consider her words. “I gave them my blood, my Crest. To give them power, to keep them save and let them live much longer.”

She tears her eyes away from the mirror. “To keep them with me,” she mumbles, her voice devoid of any emotion yet the words feel like she’s being pierced in the stomach. “And that’s exactly what they’re doing, they’re staying with me.”

A strangled sob escapes her lips. “Even when I lose control over myself.”

“But how could that happen?” Edelgard presses on. “Why did you lose control all of a sudden?”

“I… my Mother created all of us with a tremendous amount of power within us, and we were taught to channel that in small precise amount in order to help and guide mankind,” Rhea explains as she watches the battle advance, seeing the people who followed her being slowly but surely killed because of her own weakness.

“Or bodies and minds can easily hold that power, it simply slumbers within us and we draw from it whenever we need it,” she continues. The hollow but stoic way of explaining what’s going on helps her bear the sight of it.

“But when… when we are sufficiently weakened, when our bodies are fighting to stay alive and our minds have gone through such turmoil and are under such distress the power simply… comes out.” Something calm washes over her, although it feels her mind is simply disconnected from her feelings. “Most of me is already gone, all that’s left for me is to fully die.”

Edelgard keeps her eyes trained on Rhea, something she idly considers impressive given the sounds and cries of fighting coming from the mirror.

“So this is my fault then,” Edelgard states quietly.

That makes Rhea meet Edelgard’s eyes, somewhere desperate to hear from the girl that her other self isn’t currently committing the gravest of sins simply for being too _weak._

“If I hadn’t kept you imprisoned so long… I had to keep you under spells to ensure you couldn’t transform or retaliate you know… I saw how it weakened you,” Edelgard says and while she keeps looking at Rhea the guilt she’s nearly crumbling under is apparent. “I hated seeing its effects, it felt like I was just as bad as the Agarthans. I knew I’d have to lower myself to dark deeds but I never wanted… _that,_ ” she mutters. “It’s so easy to take those first few steps onto a dark path, telling yourself it’s necessary, that it isn’t so bad, that it will only be for a little while… but eventually it becomes hard to stop walking further.”

She shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I am getting off track. This is no moment for pathetic excuses,” she says with a little more vigor. “What I meant is that if I hadn’t weakened you so then you wouldn’t be losing yourself like that right now.”

The sounds coming from the mirror fail to reach Rhea’s ears entirely now as tears well up in her eyes. “What did you do to me?” she chokes out, pleading Edelgard for answers.

She expected to feel rage yet instead there is only sorrow and agony.

“I didn’t know how to keep you contained, I didn’t know what to do with you, only that I couldn’t let you go and that your power might be of use to me to take down the Agarthans. They feared you in a way.” Edelgard clenches her fists and her eyes harden. “It was them who taught us how to weaken you, it was foolish of me to think I was being more noble than them,” she says, the self-loathing apparent in her voice.

Rhea can only stare at her, unable to keep her mind from imagining under what circumstances her counterpart was kept underneath Enbarr for so long.

“Hate me,” Edelgard all but begs her in a shrill voice when Rhea remains silent.

“No,” Rhea responds softly, needing Edelgard’s bleeding emotions to jolt her out of her own darkness. “You don’t deserve that,” she adds, quiet but accusing.

“Then what do you need?” Edelgard asks her in desperation, a pleading look in her eyes.

Somehow Rhea manages to find it in herself to shrug. “You’re all I have right now, aren’t you?” she says wryly.

Edelgard’s eyes widen in shock at her words and momentarily she seems at a loss of what to do until she seems to force herself to reach out, no matter how contradictive it might be for her.

She crawls closer and tentatively puts her hand on Rhea’s back, her fingers brushing aside her hair and gently pressing into the fabric of her tunic. With guilt still marring her features the girl leans her forehead against Rhea’s shoulder. “Take from me what you need,” she whispers. “Anything to get you through this.”

Her fingers gently brush over Rhea’s back. “Or we could just stop.”

“No,” Rhea answers without hesitation. “I want to see this through.”

Still she takes Edelgard up on her offer and grabs her hand, though instead of just holding it she places it in her lab, weaving the fingers of one of her own hands through Edelgard and placing the other around her wrist.

“But I want you to feel a sliver of the pain I’m feeling while doing so,” she says and without warning digs the nail of her thumb into Edelgard’s wrists.

The girl hisses in pain and for a split second she instinctively tries to jerk her hand away, then she stops herself and with a deep breath forces her hand to relax.

“Alright,” she murmurs as she nods against Rhea’s shoulder before turning her head to face the mirror. “…Alright.”

Together they watch The Immaculate One’s inevitable but painfully slow downfall as her body degrades and her magic becomes a pure raw and unstable force. A part of Rhea wants to run or scream out due to the sheer pain she feels watching everything unfold and it’s only because she can pour a little of that agony into pushing her nail into Edelgard’s skin that she can take the edge of the strain she’s feeling that she remains where she is.

She’s not doing it hard – or often- not hard enough to draw blood or even really leave a mark, but just hard and unexpected enough that Edelgard tenses up each time. Transferring some of Rhea’s own pain to Edelgard, letting her know and feel when it’s just too much for Rhea and while Edelgard helps take the edge of her painful an chaotic emotions.

It’s calming somehow and makes her feel slightly less alone.

Without being asked she numbly explains to Edelgard some of parts the girl wouldn’t understand otherwise. The way her body is changing, degrading, as more and more magic releases from within her, the unstable chaos only fueled by its own pulsing, and how it means that what little is left of her mind is being erased as well.

Nothing but a force of nature.

Getting killed by Byleth and Edelgard had been a more dignified death, Rhea thinks bitterly to herself. She had been consumed by rage there but at least then she had still been _herself_ , at least there she could have been called an enemy, someone who wouldn’t budge for what she so fiercely believed in, instead of being reduced to mindless destruction with no will of her own.

She’d rather die hated for what she loved than pitied for being so weak.

As Byleth rallies her former students around her and moves to approach Rhea’s decaying dragon form, making it clear the fight is nearing its end Rhea wonders if this is why this timeline was ended, because her singlehandedly destroying her own faith and killing everyone closely connected to it was just too horrific fate for Fodlan.

She fails to repress a wry chuckle when she considers this means that Edelgard triumphing over her and unifying Fodlan while secretly having Byleth as a lover _also_ would be too much of a horrific fate to let happen.

“Nothing,” she says quickly when Edelgard shoots her a curious look.

In hindsight she really shouldn’t have laughed because moments later she watches what remains of her other self be quickly decimated by Byleth’s forces. Maybe it’s for the best, with how her skin is nothing but a skeleton of red glowing and pulsing veins. Even her wings having fallen apart, she could never take to the skies again.

It’s only her silhouette that remains as proof of what she once was.

_The continuous but infrequent rise and fall of the unstable outbursts of magic leave Byleth with an opening when her students manage to deflect all of it and with a pained expression but no hesitation she closes in to strike Rhea directly at the heart._

_With a gurgled screech her form wobbles on its feet and threatens to lose balance._

Simultaneously Rhea feels Edelgard’s hand clutch her hand into the fabric on her back tightly as she tenses up, making Rhea glance over to her wrist to confirm she wasn’t subconsciously injuring Edelgard with her nail.

But no, the girl was only reacting to what was happening in the mirror.

_As Byleth withdraws her sword Rhea feels her own heart skip a beat as she sees a flash of recognition in the previously vacant eyes of her other self._

_Something akin to a consciousness is still in there and seems to desperately clutch onto her sense of self with all her strength as her gaze falls on Byleth._

More and more life pours into those eyes and Rhea wonders if it’s Byleth, her Mother’s Crest Stone or the Sword of the Creator that she’s using to anchor herself but with anger and determination her other self forces her consciousness back to the surface and her body back under her control.

_Byleth had been standing completely frozen in a stance still prepared to fight but with a confused look on her face but now she jolts out of her stupor and lowers her sword in one hand as her other carefully rises to reach out to the gigantic form before her, which is visibly struggling to control herself as she keeps her eyes on Byleth._

_For a short moment Rhea seems to understand Byleth’s intention and even lowers her head slightly in return but at once her eyes widen again as a light envelops her._

_Startled, Byleth stumbles back and watches the light take to the sky, heading into the direction of the monastery._

_“Rhea, please!” Seteth screams after her but neither Rhea nor Byleth seems to hear him as Byleth wastes no time chasing after the disappearing form in the sky._

_She doesn’t pay any mind to the voices yelling after her to stop either._

_Looking torn between rage and grief Byleth runs over the paths, the bridge and finally the stairs leading up into the cathedral._

_She reaches the central hall at the same time Rhea, with her body miraculously recovered to her original, stable form falls through the already ruined ceiling and crashes onto the floor._

_Her claws scrape across the floor as her head raises up in a pained cry, a last attempt to push back the magic within her and let it die along with her instead._

_There is something hollow in Byleth’s eyes as she is helpless to do anything but watch. Her sword slips from her hand just as a hint of tears well up in her eyes but before she has the time to full embrace her grief Rhea glows yet again, though this time it’s a much warmer and gentle glow with flower petals falling around it._

_With a bewildered look her eyes dart around, confused as to what to do, until she notices the smaller form appearing in the fading light._

“Rhea it’s you!” Edelgard says in a flash of excitement as she tugs on Rhea’s clothes again, making her aware just how emotionally involved the girl is in watching the fate Rhea’s other self unfold. It’s oddly endearing in a way.

“Yes,” Rhea says softly, just as surprised as Edelgard. “How did you come back?” Edelgard asks as she avert her gaze from the mirror for a split second. “I thought you said you couldn’t be save?”

Rhea had thought so too. For centuries she had lived with the idea that were this to happen to her the effects would be irreversible. Yet there her human form is. Was it Byleth, the Crest Stone, the sword? “I cannot be sure, but I think Byleth plays a role in it in some way. Still it matters little, I should be so weakened from being controlled by my power and then miraculously forcing the power back under my control that I… the other me, shouldn’t be able to live much longer.”

Edelgard opens her mouth to speak but the mirror draws her attention.

_Any doubt Byleth might have felt at what to do is instantly gone as she dashes forward and is underneath Rhea’s slowly falling form just in time to catch her and kneel with her unconscious form in her arms onto the ground._

_“Rhea, please wake up,” she whispers in an agonizingly soft plea. “Just please come back to me.”_

_The seconds pass by at a glacial pace before Rhea stirs in her arms. Her eyes flutter open and for a few moment she seems unsure of what is going on, not recognizing her surroundings until her eyes find Byleth’s._

_Still weakened and injured from the battle it costs her effort to raise her head a little but a small smile blooms on her lips nonetheless as she makes a content sound._

_“You’re here, Mother,” comes her fragile voice riddled with emotion, keeping her eyes on Byleth until her strength wanes and with a soft sigh she closes her eyes again, leaning her head against Byleth’s chest as she loses consciousness._

_Byleth pulls Rhea closer to her, holding her tightly in her arms as her expression turns to into one of utter relief._

Rhea doesn’t miss the hint of amusement in Byleth’s eyes as well, seemingly finding being addressed as mother a little endearing. She wonders what was going through her other self’s head, just what she sees Byleth at. Earlier she was apologizing for doing what she did to Byleth and saying that Byleth was merely in the possession of some of the Goddess’s powers but now she seemed once again lost in the past.

Then again, Rhea is still reeling from the shock of watching herself regain her sense of self and control over her decaying body, something she had thought to be impossible, and cannot imagine that she’d feel anything but delirious as magic was still surging through her weakened mind.

Byleth stays with Rhea in her arms for a long time as flower petals dance around them, seemingly unaffected by the wind but being moved along of the ebb and flow of magic instead.

“Why the petals?” Edelgard asks after they’ve watched the mirror together in silence for some time.

“My power needs to go somewhere and it’s manifesting into those petals to make it physical. It’s how Mother could turn raw magic into everything, even life. That’s how we were created, along with a drop of her own blood to ensure we had a connection to her. For us turning your raw power into something touchable is to control it if it goes awry, to give it something to do and then solidify itself,” Rhea explains as she watches herself be held.

“Hmm,” come the inquisitive voice of Edelgard. “That sounds… more complex than a human could understand in one day,” she muses as she gently takes her wrist out of Rhea’s hand, searching Rhea’s face for permission as she does so and folds both her hands in her lap.

“To see it isn’t that complex really. To do it… we are consciously capable of feats a human would struggle to comprehend, but this is more of a latent side effect, a safety mechanism if you will.”

Edelgard hums and nods.

They can hear voices in the mirror coming from the distance, no doubt looking for Byleth and Rhea, making Rhea feel a sense of discomfort of having to see others see her so weak and on the verge of death.

No, instead she’ll just see what happens after and as she raises herself up and leans forward she swipes the mirror a few days in advance.

It’s odd, she thinks, it’s as if there are pieces missing. There are several days left before a last peak in activity yet some seem void of anything or have cracks in them, showing only parts of memories before jumping over to the middle of another memory.

“Perhaps Byleth struggled a lot those days,” Edelgard wonders out loud. “Maybe she didn’t feel enough so that her memories were collected or maybe there was too much chaos in her.

“That seems… plausible,” Rhea agrees, although she has little knowledge of how the mirror works.

Her fingers slide over the fractured memories delicately until she stumbles upon a fragment with _herself._

“I’m alive,” she says in surprise as she watches her other version lie in bed, with Byleth sitting aside from her on a chair, looking at Rhea’s slowly waking form with a fond smile.

“Good,” comes the voice next to her, unable to keep out the emotion Edelgard is feeling. “I hoped you would, whatever happens in this time, I don’t think that the both of us dead would do Fodlan much good, too much chaos for the people.”

With a slightly sad smile she looks over to Rhea. “And Byleth will really need you in the years to come, after the pain I left in her heart.”

The thought cause strong feelings to well up in Rhea and at once she feels choked up. Fodlan always needed the Achbishop, but now everyone will know who she truly was. The idea of someone needing _her_ is… is something she didn’t realize she had yearning for for such a long time.

The fractured memories jump from one into the next, some only lasting seconds while other a few minutes. The only thing that seems to be consistent is that Rhea is present in most of them and if she isn’t Byleth is with people who care for her as they laugh and talk of better days to come.

“I’ll put it to that last peak,” Rhea says and after Edelgard nods she reaches for the mirror.

That last peak seems to be more than two weeks into the future and to Rhea’s surprise she’s greeted with the sight of recovered herself -fully dressed in the attire of the Archbishop and looking to be in good health- alongside Byleth, standing close to each other in an abandoned alcove somewhere inside the monastery, with Byleth leaning her back against the wall, a subtle but happy smile on her lips and the Archbishop back to all grace again, although she doesn’t seem as formal and distant as she’d usually be.

It seems Rhea entered the memory a little past the beginning, but she’s immediately drawn to the sentence being spoken.

 _“Well, I believe with_ all _of my heart that this outcome was meant to be,” Rhea says to Byleth. “Oh…” she sighs weary but still smiling. “Perhaps it is disrespectful of me to say that,” she corrects herself apologetically, yet there is still happiness brimming under the surface._

_Byleth seems surprised by her words. “How is it disrespectful, Lady Rhea?” she asks with a puzzled look on her face._

_A soft but warm laugh echoes through the room before Rhea speaks. Because it gives all of the credit to time and to face, and doesn’t pay you due honor for all of the choices you made that brought us to this moment,” she explains, with proud tangible both in her voice and features._

_She shifts her posture slightly and for a moment she seems to look less confident as an odd sort of vulnerability shadows over her face. With another smile she makes the shadow fade. “For all that you have done… for all the joy you have brought me… Thank you.”_

_Byleth seems taken aback by such word being said about her and averts her gaze as her cheeks fluster, needing a moment to gather the courage to look up back to Rhea again, now with a small smile alongside her reddened cheeks._

_The woman’s reaction gives Rhea the reassurance to continue with confidence, as her voice takes on a more fragile tone. “Ever since that tragedy at the Red Canyon… I have lived a solitary life,” she confesses with sorrow marring her voice._

It’s the first time Rhea hears those words being spoken out loud, by a version of her who has shared the exact same past –save for the past 5 years or so- and the cold pit of loneliness and agony in her stomach suddenly makes itself known.

_Rhea turns to look sorrowful, guilty even. “In an effort to fill the hole left by that solitude, I took up on the challenge of reviving the progenitor Goddess...”_

Rhea had always been aware of it, of her loneliness, of what she missed in her life. But she couldn’t connect to humans, not anymore. It was too dangerous, too scary. Her family… she wanted to and they tried sometimes as well, but just too much had happened for Rhea to fully open up to them again.

_The Archbishop struggles to hold their gaze, flustered and riddled with guilt, until her eyes dart to slightly past Byleth’s shoulder –who is look at her with gentle patience- and either stares at the wall behind Byleth trains her eyes on Byleth’s shoulder, her neck or the side of her head._

_“I wished for you to become the progenitor Goddess… I wished_ desperately to _be held in my mother’s arms once more…” Rhea reveals in shame and sorrow. The pain she’s feeling, which she has been feeling so long and is now out in the open, is audible in her voice._

Her determination to bring her Mother back kept her going. Because then she wouldn’t have to be lonely anymore, because then she had someone to rely on, instead of everyone relying on her, and maybe then she wouldn’t have to feel responsible for everything anymore.

That life of solitude _hurt._

_Despite everything, despite looking a little saddened at Rhea’s words, there is still a smile on her face. Too happy and grateful Rhea is here alongside Byleth._

_“But now that has changed,” Rhea says and the tone of her voice has changed, as if it has a purpose now. “Now, I wish only for you to be yourself… and to have you by my side,” she finishes, a vulnerable but determined and warm look on her face._

Rhea idly wonders if she always comes across so intense and intimate with her words, they almost sound… romantic. Because really, if Byleth wouldn’t know any better it might sound like a propo-

Her thoughts freeze.

Her body and all its faculties too.

_“I love you. Dearly. And so, I must ask…. Will you accept this ring?” Rhea says, now flustered as she reveals a ring from one of the inner pockets of her robe._

Rhea has half a mind to stop the mirror. Or to break it.

Because _what?_

But she’s too frozen, and will not admit to herself that that’s partly because she wants to see what happens.

_“If you feel the same, I would like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you,” Rhea says. There is worry in her voice, the fear Byleth might say now, but it’s as if Rhea thinks that even a rejected proposal will do her better than none at all._

Internally Rhea is screaming, and if she’s not screaming loud enough then the _thoughts_ come.

_“I love you too,” Byleth says. The words leave her words so easily, as if she had already known, as if this is just a formality for her. Nonetheless she breaks into a smile, one for Rhea opening up to her like that and wanting her._

Rhea wants to die.

But she’s already dead.

…She’ll have to get creative then, maybe she can break her neck of she jumps off the cabin _juuust_ right.

Byleth loves her _?_ Or not _her,_ no Byleth ended her life without hesitation, leaving her divinity behind and became the secret consort of her Emperor. Rhea’s feelings for her Byleth were too muddled with rage, grieve, jealousy, betrayal and pain for Rhea to think clearly about what her feelings for the woman were... or could have been.

But _this_ Byleth loves _that_ Rhea… how? How do they see each other? What are their feelings? It’s driving Rhea insane. She’s already insane really, she just wants to learn exactly how she was driven over the edge.

Oh… _Oh_ Goddess no, Byleth… out of her pocked Byleth fishes her _own_ engagement ring, one Rhea immediately recognizes as the one Jeralt had given to Sitri… whom Rhea remembered as a daughter. Goddess, this must be divine punishment for sure.

_Rhea’s eyes widen in shock and she pales when she’s presented with the ring out of the sheer shock of it. “You…”she stammers, “You brought a ring as well? For me?”_

_Byleth nods, now also with darkened cheeks, her embarrassment makes her want to glance anyway but Rhea yet she refuses and keeps forcing her eyes back on the other woman. “For you,” is all she says but it’s enough as Rhea looks close to breaking into tears out of sheer joyous elation._

_Rhea breaks into a wide smile and laughs in delight. “I am overcome with joy… I never thought I would know a day so blissful as this…” She sounds so enraptured she cannot hide her happiness from her voice or features any longer. “That we found each other… Perhaps that means my Mother is looking after us. Guiding us.”_

Rhea never thought she could feel this much animosity between her and _herself._ Her other self seems very unbothered with getting the facts straight. Or maybe she has them straight in her own unique way and just decided not to share them with the crowd. Still, Rhea would very much enjoy learning of her counterparts reasoning here.

_Byleth too looks filled with joy, in her own muted way but Rhea knows and understands her well enough by now that she can tell the feeling is mutual and in a quick stride she wraps her arms tightly around Byleth’s shoulders._

_A soft sound escapes her lips as Byleth snakes her arms around Rhea and returns the embrace just as tightly. “As the new leader of Fodlan, if you wish for this time of peace to be everlasting… Well then I will happily dedicate my life to supporting your reign,” she breathes into Byleth’s neck, sounding almost delirious out of happiness._

_“No matter what obstacles we should encounter, I believe that our love can overcome all.”_

_She leans her head back and faces Byleth. “Together,” she sighs blissfully. “Together we can achieve anything. With our love, we will make Fodlan’s future as bright as the stars in the sky.” She says with reddened cheeks before slowly closing in, a cautious look on her face as she searches Byleth for any signs of discomfort._

_But Byleth only smiles and leans forward as well, letting Rhea kiss her sweetly._

“That is _not_ me!” Rhea exclaims angrily and anguished as she points at the mirror, before leaning over to make the mirror go black. She can’t bear this anymore.

“Huh.” She hears coming nonchalantly from behind her. With her hand on the mirror she freezes. She had forgotten about Edelgard sitting next to her, so consumed by the compelling agony of what was unfolding on the screen –the brat probably realized and kept her mouth shut deliberately.

But that means Edelgard _saw_ and _heard_ everything as well.

“That’s interesting,” Edelgard continues calmly, leaving Rhea fighting with herself if she still has the strength to shut down the mirror or simply go back to where she was sitting, because if she does neither shell remain here in this awkward position with one outstretched hand, paralyzed to do anything but accept the oncoming onslaught.

When Edelgard opens her mouth again Rhea forces herself to darken the mirror and sit back down as the girl speaks. “You know, I remember you telling me the Church didn’t approve of two women falling in love, especially not when it comes to the _sanctity_ of marriage and all,” Edelgard continues melodiously, the sound filled with intent and a promise of bad things that are surely coming Rhea’s way real soon.

“Although I don’t really feel that that’s the core issue at hand now, isn’t it Rhea?” Edelgard says in mock innocence, falling to hide the haughty glee underneath it.

Her eyes narrow and her expression turns accusing, and Rhea has nothing to brace herself with, she was just as caught unaware as Edelgard was.

“No Rhea, I do feel we really need to point out that she’s your _mother!_ ” Edelgard snaps with a menacing grin on her face. “What is wrong with you?” What kind of delusional way to cope is this? You finally gave up on bringing your mother back so you’re settling for an amnesiac human version of her… and then you _marry_ her?! Heaven’s Rhea that is… you’re messed up in the head, fucking he-”

“Stop!” Rhea yells back as her emotions are beginning to boil. But she has to force them down, she has to talks first.

“That wasn’t me, you _know_ it’s not me. My time with Byleth ended when she chose _you_ in the Holy Tomb, in all memories I have of her afterwards she’s nothing more than a failed experiment that had the _guts_ to raise her sword to me and was taking everything from me one by one. I am as shocked as you are. That woman in the mirror is _not_ me!”

Edelgard stands up and looks down on her from the side a condemning expression on her face.. “Sounds to me like you were being overly possessive of your new pet and when it disobeyed you, you thought the most logical solution was to kill it. So no, I don’t believe you.”

With a turn she faces Rhea and lowers her head. “I hope this keeps you up at night, _mommy’s girl_ ,” she drawls mockingly, followed with a bout of condescending laughter.

All the emotions Rhea had just tried so hard to suppress surge to the surface at once. Since they’re all painful emotions and so they all turn into a ball of rage, rage which she can perfectly vent on the immortal fleshpuppet right in front of her.

And so with an angered wail she jumps up at Edelgard, using her knee to make Edelgard lose balance and crumple to the ground in a surprised cry.

“Take that, teacher’s pet,” Rhea spats as she now has the upper hand. Edelgard growls beneath her as she’s both trying to get back up to her feet again and lunge towards Rhea at once.

Rhea sidesteps her easily and decides she wants more space to truly mess Edelgard up. And so with a snarling Edelgard on her tail she makes it over the small hill and a good few paces into the fields beyond before turning around and taking her head on.

Their fight is a blur an honestly kind of pitiful on both sides. This isn’t a battle between trained warriors, neither of them is fighting to win, or for their pride, there is nothing to gain.

They don’t even fight each other because they are enemies, or because of the words they just exchanged.

No, they’re just too frustrated. Overcome with anger, loss, confusion, hatred, pain, grief, feelings of what could have been and all of that makes them feel so vulnerable.

And the other one is all they have, their presence making each other both more vulnerable and less because at least they’re not alone. At least they can _vent._

And that’s exactly what they’re doing, venting.

By screaming insults and obscenities at each other while landing punches and kicks which only barely hurt enough for the other to recoil.

For minutes they keep it up and still neither has any visible damage, not even a bruise.

Their fight is fast, mean and dirty, but the way they can go all out is so freeing and relieving that the adrenaline rush makes it almost a delight to do so. At least this way they don’t have to feel, at least this way they don’t have to _think._

Until both of them align just perfectly for Rhea to kick Edelgard hard against the side of her ankle.

Which is followed by a loud agonizing wail as Edelgard promptly crumples to the ground.

The fire in Rhea is out at once as worry and confusion take over instead.

“Are you alright?” she asks hurriedly as she looks down on Edelgard’s whimpering form, her hands hovering in the air uselessly

The girl hisses and impulsively tries to grab her ankle with her hands, yet this requires her to pull up her knee which she does so on instinct.

Her ankle doesn’t appreciate the sudden movement.

Another wail, now with rage mixed into the pain as Edelgard is stuck between writhing in pain and unable to do so.

Rhea feels herself go pale. That… looks like lasting damage.

To make matters worse, it dawns on Rhea that in the past half a minute or so she had felt the odd drop of rain landing on her skin, which are now beginning to fall more and more frequently, from a cloudless sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Byleth and Rhea is a cute ship and all but god that s support scene is a wild ride.  
> It should have been 'Rhea comes to terms with never seeing her mother again and learns to move on, followed by a few months of therapy' then 'Rhea stops seeing her mother in Byleth and starts appreciating and enjoying Byleth as she is, followed by a few months of therapy' and then finally 'they grow closer and Rhea learns how to depend on Byleth as an equal and how to find peace with her', before popping them rings.
> 
> But the s support is just one breath of "And I desperately longed to be held in my moms loving embrace again' to 'and I truly thought you were her' and then "but not anymore, so lets get hitched!' in the span of under three minutes. 
> 
> Guuuuuuuurl.
> 
> this was truly difficult to write, writing characters reflecting on something they're seeing is hard on its own as it just might get boring for readers, but when what they're seeing is an epic battle which was to me visualized as anime chess... you gotta compromise.
> 
> Also super nice of nintendo to have Rhea's own brother insist you gotta kill her because no backsides, then you fight her until her form is nearly falling apart, after the final blow her sprite just DESPAWNS from the battlefield and 2 seconds later you get a cutscene with her fully recovered form being just peachy as she flies into the cathedral. ...almost as if they changed the plot halfway into making the game and already had the anime scenes..hmmmmmmm


	8. Prone

As Edelgard writhes and wails in agony on the increasingly damp grass Rhea feels completely at a loss of what to do.

With her mind still in turmoil over what she just saw and the subsequent anger she felt when fighting Edelgard everything is reeling and annoyance fights with her thoughts because her source to vent her frustrations has unexpectedly been taken from her, now supposed to be a source of worry.

Still, something akin to concern settles like a blanket over all the other painful and hated things.

“Let me help you,” she says urgently as she kneels down.

Two wide, panic-struck eyes find hers and Edelgard screams as Rhea reaches out. “No, stay away from me you monster!” she screeches and slaps her hand away on impulse.

Rhea’s first very strong impulse is to increase the pain Edelgard is currently feeling by thinking of a way to give her another injury but her pride and anger don’t entirely win from her understanding of how distressed and frightened Edelgard is right now.

So with some effort she calms herself once more and forces her frustration down, “I’m trying to help,” she says, her voice tense but with as much kindness as she can muster and gently reaches for Edelgard.

…Who slaps her hand away again, hard.

The surprise immediately causes hot white rage to flash in Rhea’s vision.

“Leave!” Edelgard shrieks at the top of her lungs. “Fuck off, leave me alone!”

It’s far too much for Rhea along with everything that happened and in her anger she cannot discern Edelgard’s fear and self-defense any longer, feeling too attacked to look past it.

“Fine,” she hisses in agitation. “Have it as you wish.”

Less than a moment later she’s back on her feet and walking away from Edelgard as the rain gets progressively worse. She’s already over the small hill before she even realizes she’s moving towards the house.

Not like there is anywhere else to go in this barren, forsaken grassland, she bitterly things to herself as she approaches it.

The door opens easier than she anticipated, or maybe she used more force than she intended because the doorknob flies out of her hand and the door slams open, making a loud bang as it hits the wall on the other side. Unbothered by the sound she steps out the rain.

She’s only two steps in when she hesitates.

Without having taken in any of the interior she turns around and gazes out into the rain again.

If there is any such thing as a sign in this world, if any of her family is watching…

Then this rain has to be it.

It’s pouring by now and puddles are forming in the grass.

With a deep sigh and a mental pat on her own shoulder she walks out into the rain again, back over the hill until Edelgard’s form is back in sight.

The younger woman is lying on her back with her arms spread wide, staring vacantly into the sky.

“What are you doing?” The words slip from Rhea’s mouth before she considers Edelgard cannot do much else in her current state.

“Trying to drown myself,” Edelgard says without missing a beat, sounding much calmer than a few moments ago.

“You’re already dead,” Rhea states flatly, raising an eyebrow as she leans over Edelgard.

The ghost of a smile settles on Edelgard’s lips. “I know, I remember that bit very well,” she says and laughs before raising her hand and waving her index finger at Rhea. “But we also thought we couldn’t get hurt and you just managed to hurt me pretty badly so I’m hoping for the best.”

Rhea sighs again as she sinks to her knees once more. “Let me carry you inside,” she asks, trying to sound kinder than she feels, the anger inside her reduced to an ember but still there, waiting to be fanned again by the white haired girl who seems hell-bent on doing so at some point either way.

Edelgard turns her head sideways and glances at Rhea curiously. “Promise you won’t drop me?” she murmurs, sounding slightly more scared than she probably meant to.

“Can’t promise anything with that slippery hill in between us and the house but I’ll give it my best effort.”

“I’ll settle for that then,” Edelgard grins, laughing away her pain and fear. “But if you do drop me make sure it’s lethal, this rain isn’t doing it for me.”

“Stop it,” Rhea tells the girl sharply as she reaches for her. As carefully as possible she first puts her arm underneath Edelgard’s back, who pushes herself up on her arms for Rhea’s arm to fit under her, before she does the same with her other arm underneath Edelgard’s knees.

The Emperor winces in pain when Rhea lifts her up, despite her trying to do so as gently as she can.

“Don’t drop me,” Edelgard says again, this time without any humor and sounding much more small than before.

“I won’t,” Rhea responds with newfound determination.

The hill proves to be more problematic than she anticipated, not because at any point she’s at risk of losing her balance but because making her way over it is incredibly painful for Edelgard, whose leg shakes too much with each step Rhea takes that she doesn’t exercise absolute precision over. Every little movement of her ankle causes Edelgard to whimper in pain and makes Rhea feel increasingly guilty over it.

“Almost there,” she tells her once she’s slowing herself down past the top of the hill. It should take maybe three or four steps to be down but it feels endless. The steps are so slo and sometimes her feet slip a little in the mud, causing Rhea to cry out.

Edelgard buries her head into Rhea’s shoulder and twists her fingers into the fabric of her clothes just before Rhea makes it down. “I’m sorry,” she stutters stiffly before hissing in pain again.

“Don’t be. We made it.”

“Hmm,” comes the relieved response followed by a shaky exhale.

Moments later Rhea steps though the door, glad she left it open despite the fact it has rained in.

With her foot she closes the door behind her before glancing around the room, settling for a chair near a table close by.

“Hold on,” she says as she delicately begins to lower Edelgard and not a second later two arms wrap tightly around her neck.

Slowly she sits down Edelgard on the wooden chair, making sure the girl has found her balance before drawing back. She looks miserable in her drenched clothes and hair, coming across as even smaller than usual when she gazes up at Rhea with heavy eyes.

“I’ll go look for towels and new clothes,” Rhea says and hurries off, not able to take those piercing eyes when all of Edelgard just looks so vulnerable and weak right now. She misses the Emperors anger, a part in Rhea still wants to express her own.

Feeling almost as if she’s been here before she blindly finds two adjacent bedrooms, their entrances on opposite sides of a little hallway. Entering the left one reveals it has a small bathroom in the back separated by a door, where she goes to grab several towels, both for her and Edelgard.

Opening the wardrobe her first worry is that all the clothes seem slightly too small but then has to suppress a currently not appropriate grin when she realizes all the –oddly similar- clothes in here must be for Edelgard.

Quickly taking undergarments, a shirt and pants that seem comfortable enough to sleep in she goes back to Edelgard, who’s only movement seems to have been that she’s gazing outside now.

“So much rain,” she murmurs distantly as she watches the falling drops outside the window.

“Yes,” Rhea says, followed by an awkward, “here,” as she places the bundle of clothes, along with some towels, on the table next to Edelgard.

“I’ll go change in the other bedroom,” she says before creating distance between them again, eager to get out of her wet clothes herself.

“Rhea,” Edelgard calls after her.

Turning around the girl is looking at her with an intent expression on her face as she grabs a towel to put under her hair. “Thank you for not being angry right now,” she says softly.

There is no smile on her face but Rhea can still see the strange kind of gratitude Edelgard seems to feel.

“Don’t mention it, it’s only appropriate,” she says in one breath before turning away and finding what must be her room moments later.

She can’t put her finger on why she’s feeling so skittish around Edelgard. Perhaps it’s out of guilt for somehow managing to injure her, or perhaps she’s too unused seeing a vulnerable Edelgard.

With some effort she shakes the thought and drapes a towel around her shoulders and uses another one to squeeze and rub her hair dry, after which she uses her fingers to make it look a little more decent than the curly mess of knots it truly is.

Opening her own wardrobe she takes more time to see all the contents and is met with the same arrangement of clothes as earlier but all slightly larger. It’s mostly loose shirts and tunics with pants in varying lengths. She does spot some skirts and a few dresses but even those as simple and clearly made for comfort and to move around in easily.

Some of the clothing doesn’t seem to fit Fodlan’s fashion at all. Most of it is white for starters and especially the nobility love their bold colors. It also seems from times long gone, times when Fodlan knew technology her Mother had bestowed on it, when people relied less on their clothing to denote their ranks and status.

Trying not to think too much of it –they’re in a world outside of time after all- Rhea settles for a long tunic and knee length loose pants. She’ll have to make do with a new clothing style for the time being it seems.

When she’s almost done she hears the soft voice from Edelgard. “Rhea,” she asks with unease in her voice. “I uh… I need your help I think.”

Not once did Rhea think Edelgard would ever ask her for help but here they are and after quickly putting her pants on fully she’s in the living room again. “With what?” she says but by the sight alone it’s clear what Edelgard is struggling with.

“I can’t get my pants down like this,” she says and now truly looks miserable having to be seen in such a state. “I can’t put enough pressure on my feet.” Looking guilty her eyes meet Rhea’s once more. “I’m sorry,” she says before glancing away.

The girl has already put on the shirt Rhea had provided her with and a towel is draped around her shoulders to avoid her hair making her new clothes wet as well but she’s fumbling with the hem of her pants, having dragged them down slightly until she couldn’t go further.

Rhea has seen enough people naked –men and women alike- for so many reasons other than sex that she doesn’t bat an eye at seeing another one naked, but she can tell Edelgard lacks this experience, not to mention she’s a strictly raised noble whose upbringing forced has forced into her how nudity should be avoided with anyone that isn't their spouse.

That and the rumors of experiments in her childhood that had left her scarred.

Rhea thinks she can muster up the empathy to handle this delicately, then.

“Wrap one arm around my neck, I’ll lift you up with mine so you can take your pants off with your free hand,” she explains, level-headed and without much emotion. “I promise I won’t look,” she adds with more gentleness in her voice.

Skittish eyes meet her own. “Please promise,” she asks softly with a plea in her voice.

“I do,” Rhea reaffirms again, really not that eager to look to begin with.

Slowly and with predictable movements she closes in on Edelgard –who looks at her like a wounded animal trying to discern if it’s being threatened the entire time- before gently wrapping her arms around her waist, waiting until Edelgard has one arm steadily around Rhea’s neck before raising her up slightly from the chair.

She said she wouldn’t look but with her head stuck on Edelgard’s shoulder and their chests being pressed together it’s honestly impossible to look. Still, Edelgard seemed reassured and after a few moments of fumbling before Rhea catches her grab a towel off the table from the corner of her eye to cover herself Edelgard quietly mumbles, “done.”

“Good.”

Feeling slightly awkward she lowers Edelgard and moves away.

“Wait.”

“Hmm?”

There is a bout silence before Edelgard answers. “I’ll need your help putting the pants on as well.”

“Oh.” Automatically Rhea attempts to turn around, thinking she’ll just pick Edelgard back up again but instead she gets hissed at.

“Not now! Give me a moment.” Rhea turns back around just slowly enough that she saw the terribly flustered face of Edelgard.

_Nobles._

Several moments pass and Rhea feels terribly out of place and has to stop herself from fidgeting, opting to survey the interior of the room instead. Just when she’s about to search for lights, as night has now truly settled in, Edelgard speaks up.

“ _Now_ you can help,” she says and dares to sound condescending.

With an exasperated sigh Rhea finally turns back around and this time pulls up Edelgard a little less gentle than previously. The fact Edelgard makes no mention of it gives her hope the injury is healing just as rapidly as everything else they endured from each other until now.

“Done.”

“Proud of you.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Edelgard laughs as she fumbles a little with her tunic to get it to sit more properly. “You’re an even better liar than I thought,” she grins with too much of a smug expression for Rhea’s liking

“You’re just not worth the effort,” she bites back, feeling instantly guilty when Edelgard seems genuinely hurt by her remark. “Either way, would you like to carry you to your bedroom?” she tries changing the subject. “It’s late… probably.”

Unexpectedly, Edelgard shakes her head and gazes past Rhea at the long double corner couch behind her. “I think I’d prefer to sleep there, if you don’t mind,” she says as she gestures to the dark brown colored thing. “I rather not sleep in small rooms when I’m not… well, I tend to get nightmares.” With a sad smile she looks bad at Rhea. “And trust me, that’ll keep the both of us up.”

“Oh,” Rhea responds demurely, momentarily at a loss of words. “Then I’ll get the blankets instead?” she questions.

She’s not used to this, waiting on someone, _fetching_ things.

Not as if it’s beneath her, but serving Edelgard is definitely beneath her. Then again it’s her own fault and she can’t just leave the girl to sit in the chair all night, as much as she deserves it for all she did to Rhea.

“If you would, please,” Edelgard asks her quietly.

Resigning herself to playing the Emperors servant a little longer Rhea heads for her room once more, yanking the blankets and a pillow of the bed, hoisting the bundle in her arms before heading back.

Upon her return Edelgard has lifted her injured leg into the air, looking at it with a slightly pained expression. “I think it’s healing,” she says reluctantly. “It still hurts but I could move it a little if I wanted to, and it’s throbbing too. That’s good right?”

“It is,” Rhea lies, not at all knowing how healing works without access to magic. But it's not looking swollen and even Rhea knows that's a good thing. “Here,” she says and places the bundle she brought with her on the sofa. “Your stuff.” Without being asked to she lies the pillow at the outer end and puts the blanket on the opposite, in the junction of the two endings, planning to put it over Edelgard once she has lifted her over to the couch.

Behind her she hears Edelgard hiss and make a noise of pain, causing her to look back up in alarm.

“I can walk,” the girl stubbornly insists, having gone pale as she’s trembling from overexertion.

“ _No.”_

“…No?”

“You heard me.”

“Oh.”

Without further discussion Rhea closes in on her and moves to lift her up again. Edelgard lets it happen with only a soft sound of defiance, needing to prove she doesn’t _actually_ need to be picked up and that Rhea is just exaggerating.

Still, she seems relieved when she’s sitting on the bed, looking in pain as she carefully lifts her bad leg on the couch and slowly stretches it before lying down.

“Ohw,” she winces as she accidentally uses the muscles in her ankle, causing Rhea to raise an eyebrow at her as she puts the blanket over her. Edelgard takes it from her with an annoyed but caught expression, wrapping it around herself and looking away. “Thanks,” she mutters.

“You’re welcome,” Rhea responds coldly, equally annoyed as Edelgard because the girl doesn’t _appreciate_ her effort. “Well I’ll be going then,” she says, not waiting as she heads for the small hallway leading to their rooms.

A few steps in she hesitates, coming to a full stop just two more steps later.

With a start she realizes she really doesn’t want to be alone right now, especially not if she has to sleep. There are just too many thoughts in her head she cannot spend the night with. Even Edelgard’s company should make things more tolerably, she’s rather angry with the brat than with herself.

“Actually…” she begins as she turns around, feeling slightly awkward. “Do you mind if I sleep here as well?”

Edelgard turns her head away from the backrest of the sofa. “Do you have nightmares too?” she asks curiously.

It’s only because of the lack of malice in her tone Rhea can allow herself to be somewhat vulnerable. “Something like that yes,” she admits. “Too many thoughts.”

“Ah,” Edelgard responds with a knowing look, giving a small understanding nod before padding the space next to her. “Sure,” she says and instantly proceeds to look uncomfortable. Slightly flustered she points at the empty side of the couch. “There,” she corrects herself.

Rhea decides to pretend she didn’t notice the slight mishap and goes to tear her own blanket from her bed with more vigor than necessary.

A short moment later she puts the pillow on the other empty side of the couch and lays down as she curls herself into her blanket with a sigh.

“Good night,” she says curtly.

“Rhea?” comes the immediate response.

“What?” she says more sharply than she intended, but she’s tired and in a worse mood than she had been in a long time. Edelgard’s presence is only nice in the sense that her anger has a let-out other than the tiring trial she just went through.

“I’m sorry I called you a mommy’s girl”

“ _What.”_ She had hoped to never hear that term again but Edelgard just has to casually mention it.

That infuriating, little _…_

“It was terribly uncalled for,” Edelgard murmurs, sounding more insecure than when she apologized.

“It was,” Rhea agrees. “But thank you,” she adds sourly, not at all happy she has to act grateful and feeling terribly close to just rejecting Edelgard’s attempt.

“I mean, in a way I’m exactly the same,” Edelgard says, causing Rhea to turn over at once and look at the girl.

“Enlighten me, _please,_ ” she asks with a scowl.

“Well, we both saw Byleth as something she wasn’t. We both saw the Sothis in her, the only difference is you wished her to be your Mother while I feared she was the Goddess. In the end I couldn’t look past my fears and distanced myself from her. I couldn’t reach out and rely on her like my other self did.”

That was… unexpectedly insightful from the Emperor in a way Rhea didn’t expect and not for the first time she feels more understood by her than she wants to admit. “Thank you,” she says again, this time with genuine gratitude in her voice. “…But if this is some kind of convoluted attempt to get me to take back having called you a teacher’s pet then it’s not going to work,” she adds stoically.

To her surprise Edelgard breaks into laughter as she turns her head to Rhea. “No, it wasn’t. I was definitely a teacher’s pet,” she admits with a chuckle. “I was _so_ intent on getting high marks just to impress her,” she chuckles. “I suppose it was just nice to be able to show my skills and effort to someone who didn’t have any expectations for me, but still. It was refreshing not to matter, that a smile was the only reason for me try my best.”

Rhea finds herself smiling and catches Edelgard’s own smile brighten when the girl sees her expression. “You really did have feelings for her, didn’t you?” she wonders out loud.

Edelgard flusters and glances away momentarily. “No. Or rather, I never realized I might have until I saw my other self confess,” she admits. “I suppose she got to reflect on them once Byleth joined her side while I never got that opportunity.”

“I’m sorry,” Rhea finds herself saying, feeling as if she ruined the lighter mood between them.

“No, don’t be,” Edelgard reassures her. “It hurts, but it’s still a relief to know I found happiness in another life.”

“By breaking the law and killing me,” Rhea can’t help but point out.

“Hmm,” is the only sound Edelgard makes, looking terribly guilty until she catches Rhea’s grin, after with they both break into soft laughter.

“I suppose we’ll have to think of something for that then,” the Emperor says after they quiet down.

“I’d appreciate that.”

Silence falls over them after that and Rhea thinks Edelgard has fallen asleep until she hears a drowsy “Goodnight Rhea,” after which she says the same in a much kinder way than before and soon the only sound in the room is the quiet breathing of Edelgard, who must have been much more exhausted than she let on.

Rhea too falls asleep more quickly than she’s used to, not at all aware that it’s happening.

Several hours later she wakes up with a start and as she opens her eyes she notices it’s still night. She assumes it is at least, it’s still dark outside but as this world has no sun and no clouds she cannot tell what truly is going on. The rain has stopped though and Rhea hopes that’s a good sign.

When she stretches her legs Edelgard makes a noise of pain in her sleep, making Rhea aware the girl has crawled down slightly and her foot is resting atop her own. Rhea considers moving but after giving it some mental effort in her sleepy state she determines it’s Edelgard’s injured ankle which she put there and decides she doesn’t want to risk hurting her further.

Besides, perhaps the warmth will help.

It certainly helps Rhea stay calm as her thoughts threaten to creep up on her.

Until sleep claims her again feeling that slight bit of warmth, along with hearing the sound of Edelgard’s slow breathing, becomes her lifeline.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly hard to figure the amount of Resentment they surely must still hold for each other but they're really tired and had a long day, please forgive them for laughing, they'll punch each other's lights out soon enough. They like it, they're just on break.


End file.
